Breastfeeding in public – where were you surprised it was ok?

By Lisa Lactivist, on August 2nd, 2011

When you first started to breastfeed in public did you think you would get a bad reaction from people?

Lactivist is collecting positive breastfeeding stories so please leave a comment if you breastfed somewhere that you thought would be tricky but it was all fine.

I think we need more happy stories to help new mums realise that it’s not actually that big a deal, and that generally people don’t notice you are breastfeeding anyway!

Here are some stories from Lactivist on Facebook:

I remember my very first experience of breastfeeding in public so clearly. My daughter was 4 weeks old, and I had barely left the house in those 4 weeks. Breastfeeding had beeen really hard to start with, but by this stage her latch had improved enough that I could feed without gritting my teeth. My dad had come to visit, but just as I was about to set off to the mother and baby group he said that he didn’t think the baby was wearing enough layers and I gave in, took her out of the sling, put her in more clothes, spent half an hour calming her down again and finally, tearfully, made my way to the bus stop.

I got on the bus, and my daughter wanted milk. I slipped her out of her sling, latched her on, and guess what? She stopped crying and I calmed down. The conductor came past, and I paid him one-handed while he smiled at the baby. She fed the whole journey, and I managed to get off the bus still holding her in my arms until she fell asleep on the walk from the bus stop to the baby group. I felt so proud of myself for managing that first public breastfeed. Four and half years later later I’ve fed my daughter and her little brother in more unusual and perhaps challenging places, but that first time gave me the confidence to carry on. A big thank you to the bus conductor who didn’t bat an eyelid at a nervous new mother feeding her baby.

The front pew of the church at my sons baptism. The priest is very supportive of breastfeeding