If men nursed babies, this would not be an issue.

@1: Pretty much. If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrement.

no one has ever said a bloody thing to me all the times I ever nursed in public. what you've got to do is get "don't fuck with me" face on. I don't know what the law is in Washington, but in CT, it's against the law to harass a breastfeeding mother in public.

I think the nurse-ins are a really good idea, once the word gets around that if you bother a mother nursing in public, a hundred or so angry breastfeeding mothers will descend on you like a plague, maybe people will get the fucking message.

@5 Yeah, what IS so hard to understand?!? Of course I should feed my baby in the bathroom, isn't that where we all consume our meals? Of course I should go hide somewhere to feed my baby, don't we all eat in private, secluded places? I should never feel free to feed my baby when around other people, eating is never a shared event. I cannot shop while feeding my baby, since no one in their right mind would ever snack while wandering through a store, that's why Starbucks serves their coffee in ceramic mugs with the express rules that you must sit (in private, on the toilet) to drink.

Being completely serious here for a moment. I fully understand the need to breast feed a hungry baby. I fully understand that it's a parents right to keep their baby from starving and all that.
If you were running a business, like say a mall, or a small food shop with a lot of customers, and a woman was about to breast feed her baby, would it be considered offensive or even harassment to POLITELY, offer a place with a little bit more privacy? Let's say that we can do this in a way that doesn't come off as complete NW passive aggressive and is a genuine offer to let a breast feeding mom use the little office space or something so that she's not in the middle of a few dozen people. Or would just this very idea infer too much that breast feeding is icky and you shouldn't do it in public?
Can you tell I don't have kids? Also, don't worry that I'm actually going to do this ever since I don't work retail and was just pondering this as a hypothetical.

@5 If you don't want to look at those "flop[ped] titties" don't. These women are covering their breast with a baby (as opposed to a piece of cotton) to protect your delicate sensibilities.

Also, way to misappropriate "first world problems". It's onlt a first world problem because the rest of the world has more to worry about than the odd boob attacking them while they shop.

@7 Many places that cater to families do offer "Mothers Rooms" or "Family Rooms". You'll find them near the kids area at malls with some little toys for siblings and a changing space. Other places may just have an out-of-the-way bench. But most places you go there's not a designated feeding area.

A baby may not be able to wait for you to truck your kids and belongings to the other side of the mall in order to feed him. Personally, I prefer a quiet space, but I have had to nurse in public. It’s not ideal, but a screaming starving baby is harder to feed. So when a baby gets hungry, you have limited time to start feeding.

And once she’s started nursing, it’s not easy for a mother to pack up and move somewhere else to continue feeding. Stores and restaurants could offer a private place for the chance that a nursing mother might need to feed her baby, but it’s a lot easier to offer a bench that anyone can use and for people to just accept that nursing is healthy for mom and baby and ultimately better for our society, so just turn away and give a harried mom a break.

I can't imagine what kind of awkward, issue-ridden douche would be so butthurt about a woman breastfeeding in public.

Breastfeeding is a non-issue in the rest of the world. Americans are fucking deranged.

@12 - You have some serious issues. You equate eviscerating a carcass to breast feeding? Wow. A breast feeding mother is a barbarian? Not even close. What have you experienced that is so traumatizing? I have never seen a mother in public NOT use a modesty blanket.

@12 Many babys actually don't like bottles if they were exclusively breast fed from birth. The breast has a much different flow than a bottle. Also the pump doesn't pull milk as efficiently as a baby therefor its alot harder for women to pump enough for baby.

For any moms that are interested, a nurse-in is being organized at Northgate Target. Here's the facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/214900065…

I wish this was a non-issue. I really do. I don't like to make a big show of feeding my baby, although I will feed him whenever and wherever it's necessary. Think you don't like seeing the back of my baby's head while he's eating? You certainly won't like the sound of him screaming his damn head off because his needs aren't being met.

5, 10, 12, 16 all the same person? I would hope if a nursing mom is ever confronted by such a person because she dares to use her tits for what nature has intended them, that she uses her uncovered representation of BARBARISM to shoot him directly in the face with her sweet, warm, mother's milk. It's been a number of years since I had an infant to nurse, but as I recall, in the presence of a screaming, hungry baby, one has the potential to spray a target half a mile away... and still have plenty left for baby.

I've never seen anyone nurse in public in anything other than a discreet way. It has to be done, and women and babies shouldn't have to stay home until the kid's two years old nor should they be forced to nurse in a bathroom stall just to please you. You are a misogynist douche.

Tips to humans
If the woman in question does not have a baby it's ok to ask them to put their boobs back into their clothes while making fun of them.
If the woman in question has a screaming baby and her boobs are gigantic feeding machines for him and she puts his lips on them try your fucking hardest not to stare.
This is why people need a basic education. If people weren't allowed to grow up ignorant of our biology we wouldn't have this problem. These people see it as the freedom to be ignorant or something. And we put people in jail for doing drugs? On the scale of things I'd much rather punish assholes like that in a harsher way than that heroine junky XD