Bonnie, while I respect your personal views on modesty/decency - if
you start to talk in terms of not objecting if 'a woman's breast is
exposed briefly or to the extent it needs to be exposed to feed the
child' you are making life difficult or impossible for women.  What was
necessary for me when I was feeding my baby is DIFFERENT to what
was necessary when I was feeding my toddler, and was DIFFERENT
to what was necessary for my friend, and even more so for my friend
who nursed her twins simultaneously, and didn't have time or the
inclination (and why should she?) to feed them one at a time.  if you
make permission to breastfeed in public conditional, no matter how
noble your reasons, you will give women worry ('Am I showing too
much?' 'Is it all right here?'), and give ammunition to those who just
don't like breastfeeding ('I was offended' - 'She didn't need to show
THAT much').

Breastfeeding is too important for mother and child to allow our
sensitivities to interfere.  I am working to make breastfeeding a
NORMAL and UNEXCEPTIONAL experience, and I live in hope that
we will reach the stage where no mother will keep bottles and abm in
the house for trips out IN CASE SHE OFFENDS ANYONE BY
BREASTFEEDING HER BABY.

We are adults, surely we can put the children's needs and rights first.

And if we all went out and were so discrete, then no-one would know
what we were doing, and if no-one ever sees breastfeeding, how can
it ever be normal?


Mary Broadfoot, Scotland
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