Breastfeeding in public, discreet or indiscreet, it's the mother herself to
decide what she wants. The only reason why a woman should want to bf discreet in
public is because she herself might not feel at ease showing her breasts. OK
even that is a cultural issue, but if a mom does not feel at ease showing her
breast, she'll have to know of ways do bf discreet. Ideally women should never
have to be shy to breastfeed wherever they are but the reality is that lots of
them do. It's better to teach them how to bf discreet than to have them not
breastfeed at all with other people around.

About places where I breastfed: almost everywhere I was I breastfed, in the 10+
years I had a nursling of any age. Zoo's, trains, busses, lecturing (about BF),
helping in schoolclasses of the older children (got a nursing strike because
some bad-tasting stuff got near my nipple), beach, swimming pool, playground,
and lots of other places.
Most emotional was breastfeeding my youngest, 3 mo then 9 years ago, while
waking at my fathers death bed and during his funeral. It was like closing the
cycle of life and it help me grieving and coming over it. Ofcourse, there where
people who thought and vocalised that I shouldn't have taken a baby in the first
place, let alone nurse him during ceremonies. But it wasn't there father that
died, nor was it their baby that had to live on in the chain of life my father,
me and my son are parts of.

What I want to say wtih this is that birth, breastfeeding and death are all
natural parts of life that shouldn't be hidden away. What is hidden away becomes
scary or weird. Life is too sacred to do that with it.

Gonneke van Veldhuizen, IBCLC, living in Maaseik, Belgium
http://www.users.skynet.be/eurolac
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