Pope Francis Supports Breastfeeding Enough To Know It Needs To Happen In Public

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I have breastfed all 4 of my children and am quite shocked at some of the views on public breast feeding on this thread. A newborn requires feeding constantly and there is no telling when! I feed my 11 week old son anywhere, including during mass, I use a cover but if I didn’t the babies mouth and head cover most of the breast anyway. I’m horrified now to think some perv is getting turned on over me feeding my infant child :-0
I have breastfed all 10 of mine. I’m not surprised by all of the comments resulting from the resurrection of old threads which have been duplicated and mushroomed from “Get over it” attitudes. That’s all.
 
I have breastfed all 10 of mine. I’m not surprised by all of the comments resulting from the resurrection of old threads which have been duplicated and mushroomed from “Get over it” attitudes. That’s all.
10 kids, huh? Respect! 👍
 
Not shocked at anyone feeling uncomfortable, you feel how you feel and i public breast feeding is a controversial issue. Am shocked at the suggestion that males may become aroused if they spot a women breast feeding. I’m not denying breasts are arousing or have multi purposes but I haven’t really considered that my breastfeeding could be causing lustful, sinful thaughts either.
 
why should the baby be covered ? i don’t eat with a bag over my head.
and the Holy Father hasn’t a problem with this.

People have been open about posting their reasons, I encourage you to read them if you have time.
 
As I’ve pointed out before, I have seen breastfeeding in restaurants and airline flights. Perhaps you have seen other situations. Naturally in our sensitive culture, we have “decency” laws against public exposure of sexual parts, or what’s accepted as sexual parts, and I doubt the Supreme Court will act based on what this or any Pope says. But that’s my opinion.
Feeding a baby is a must though. Seen someone i know breastfeeding in front of me at mass. Nobody batted an eye lid. 👍
 
Sometimes, especially if you happen to join a thread at some point not having followed a previous dialog, it can be a little difficult to understand who is opposing your view and who is not. But I will say this- It does seem contradictory to me when those in the secular media and some who would otherwise defend a woman’s right to wear what most of us church going people would call immodest dress in public would be the first ones to complain about an uncovered breastfeeding mother. I have to wonder what is it about breastfeeding that would annoy such people. As we have already said, mothers who breastfeed in church are more discreet than some out in the public who are being criticized. But when those in the secular media jump on the bandwagon to complain about the uncovered protesting breastfeeding mothers, I have to agree with them. Perhaps there is some unconscious reason why even the secular society wants to preserve the modest image of mothers.
 
Furthermore, looking away can be construed as being disapproving of the act.
Exactly. A while ago I was at a local coffee shop & on my way to the restroom, I passed a much younger woman nursing in a fairly modest way. Public breastfeeding is still pretty rare around here so most of us instinctively look away, and that’s what I did. That was ALL I did. She glared at me on my way back and if looks could kill, I wouldn’t be writing this - in hindsight, I’m surprised she didn’t say, “Too bad!”

I didn’t do anything wrong and I’m not going to apologize for being uncomfortable. Whether you’re in favor of it or not, the fact remains that public breastfeeding is still not common in our society and most of us are simply not used to it yet. His Holiness comes from a very different country and furthermore, he spent a lot of time among the very poor who have no other way of giving their infants proper nutrition. We women here have the luxury of choosing to nurse or not, and in the best & unfortunate American habit of taking everything to extremes, there are a few who seem to do it for other reasons in addition to feeding their children - dare I say to provoke?

Motherhood is a wonderful thing and nobody here is going to argue that, but it doesn’t give you an excuse to be inconsiderate or uncharitable, particularly to other women. If you can’t accept that everyone doesn’t think and feel the same way you do, then maybe you’re the one with some growing up to do.
 
If something is so beautiful and natural and modesty is not an issue, why shouldn’t we all be able to stare in admiration of such a beautiful thing? (Playing the devil’s advocate here, I don’t actually think that.)
So if a woman has a beautiful face, should you stare at that too? What about breasts that are clothed modestly? Still beautiful, still natural, quite modest, not fit for being stared at by anyone but a spouse.

Maybe it would depend on the context but I take it that most women (and men, likewise) probably don’t want strangers staring at any part of them.
 
So if a woman has a beautiful face, should you stare at that too? What about breasts that are clothed modestly? Still beautiful, still natural, quite modest, not fit for being stared at by anyone but a spouse.

Maybe it would depend on the context but I take it that most women (and men, likewise) probably don’t want strangers staring at any part of them.
Good point, context is huge. Staring at a person/people for long is considered rude in Western cultures. If you notice something or someone beautiful, you usually visually take it in to some extent, but the length depends on the subject and the context. The analogy or example I was thinking of was a mother simply holding her child, because that is something a lot of people find beautiful. Can it be rude to stare too long at a mother holding her child? Sure. But I think most people would think it’s normal to look on for say 15 seconds and enjoy that example of love and motherhood.

On the other hand, (esp. if you’re a man) if you’re looking at an uncovered mother and child for 15 seconds, something tells me people (mother, father, concerned third parties) wouldn’t be as keen at your admiration in that situation.
 
So if a woman has a beautiful face, should you stare at that too? What about breasts that are clothed modestly? Still beautiful, still natural, quite modest, not fit for being stared at by anyone but a spouse.

Maybe it would depend on the context but I take it that most women (and men, likewise) probably don’t want strangers staring at any part of them.
Well, let’s look at it this way- If you wear some nice clothes that you paid your hard earned money for and perhaps some jewelry or other accessories, washed and fixed your hair, or just groomed the best you could etc, should everyone look away when they see you and not show the least interest or admiration, not even for the beauty that God created?
On the other hand if someone has their nose and ears pierced and some of the holes are as big as quarters, tattoos cover their body, or they wear outrageous clothes, makeup and hairdos, which scream “Look at me! Look at me!” should they complain when someone looks at them?
I just have to laugh when I see how for we keep drifting from the topic of this thread.
 
i did and i was voicing my reason counter to the ones expressed 🤷
Perhaps as a matter of privacy? I guess such things may be cultural, but I see benefit when there are differing opinions to embrace compromise of conflict. In any case, I would never think it would be good to use a bag.
 
People have been open about posting their reasons, I encourage you to read them if you have time.
Seriously, people who have a problem with “uncovered breastfeeding” don’t sound to me like they have ever looked at a breastfeeding woman - you can’t actually SEE much of anything! Just look at the woman in the picture above - to me, a straying eye would really have to add an ACTIVE imagination to find anything even remotely tempting in such a view.
 
I think the appropriate reaction to seeing a breastfeeding woman is a smile, one that she can see, one that says “Good for you! You gave your child life and now you are trying to do what’s best for him/her.”

Sadly, I’ve heard women say “Breastfeeding is disgusting. I don’t care if it’s ‘natural’. Defecation is natural too but I don’t want to see that either.”😦

The best support and reaction I received to nursing our daughter was from my 80 year old aunt who’d had no children and my 92 year old grandmother, who’d had 16. Grandma said “I think it’s wonderful what you and other young women are doing these days. Not like in my time when our kids cried constantly and I think it’s because they were hungry. We were told to make sure that all the cream was separated from the milk before we fed them and the milk was so thin and blue it looked as though it had rained in the cow.”
 
Well, let’s look at it this way- If you wear some nice clothes that you paid your hard earned money for and perhaps some jewelry or other accessories, washed and fixed your hair, or just groomed the best you could etc, should everyone look away when they see you and not show the least interest or admiration, not even for the beauty that God created?
On the other hand if someone has their nose and ears pierced and some of the holes are as big as quarters, tattoos cover their body, or they wear outrageous clothes, makeup and hairdos, which scream “Look at me! Look at me!” should they complain when someone looks at them?
I just have to laugh when I see how for we keep drifting from the topic of this thread.
Have you considered that women who are breastfeeding aren’t interested in attention and just want to make sure the baby is fed?
 
Have you considered that women who are breastfeeding aren’t interested in attention and just want to make sure the baby is fed?
Exactly! I plan to breastfeed when I have children, but I’m very self-conscious and would feel absolutely mortified if someone was staring at me, no matter if it was in admiration or disapproval.
 
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