Breast-feeding mother 'told to leave council headquarters because she would offend Muslim visitors

It's nothing to do with muslims and everything to do with idiots who get offended by a perfectly natural beautiful thing. They can be any faith, colour or creed.
I've had a few off looks by people before when I've breastfed my three children but no one actually dared say anything - Oddly enough it always seemed to be white old ladies who wrinkled their noses in distaste. My guess is because they were expected to shove a bottle of crap into their kids when they were child bearing age and breastfeeding was frowned upon as a low class thing.

Originally posted by Hatcookie
reply to post by TWILITE22

 

I'm breastfeeding my 3 month old right now and I'm extremely uncomfortable doing it in public, I usually end up going out to the car or something to have some privacy. I am afraid someones going to say something nasty to me. I applaud all the brave women out there who don't give a crap and do whats best and most natural for their children.

Look at it this way: If it comes to embarrassing myself or my crying,hungry baby, somehow the latter is more important. I always had a small baby blanket with me or had them in a baby sling (which was a godsend). So unless people were sticking their head down to my chest, they really didn't know what I was doing and didn't care if they did...
I fed all three of my kids and they(my breast) fell to my waist so as a reward after my last I had a breast reduction without implants.The funny thing is I'll be old and wrinkled one day but my breast will still look good! Haha!
Enjoy the precious time you have breast-feeding your baby. You'll never have that kind of special bonding one-on-one time again-babies grow so fast!

You can get all sorts of wonderful tops and scarves these days to be discreet breastfeeding in public. Most people wouldn't realise what you were doing unless you told them.
I can understand it's a bit uncomfortable for some new mothers, theres always the mindset that boobies are for fun, you have to get yourself out of that conditioned thinking, once you do it's a liberating and lovely experience.

Originally posted by meathed

Originally posted by TWILITE22

Thanks for the cheering on,ha ha!

Your welcome, and thank you for having BOOBS.

As without women and their breasts, human kind would never have existed.

The local breastfeeding club should take a field trip to this office building with their hungry babies!!

That is a good idea , it would definantly make a great statement

But seriously I did breastfeed my children and did it discreetly in public,but in this case I don't believe I would have been so careful,my breast would have accidently fallen out and really gave them a reason for raising a stink!....

you sound just like my darling little sister , she would have done the same as you.

it's the most natural thing a mother could do for her child,it's not offensive,sexual or indecent get over it!

Agreed, this natural act is not sexual or indecent nore is it offensive in any way.
As i said at the start of this post, if it wasn't for you mothers and your "breasts", we as the human race would not exist. And it seems that Its only in this so called modern era public breast feeding has become a problem to some.
In our ancient past (and even today,) mothers would share breast feeding duties with the other mothers of their tribe if said mothers were away hunting, ect, ect, or they would help those mothers that couldn't express milk to feed their child, this practice is still being done today.

So feed your beautiful children you beautiful mothers and care not about offending others when you do it.

Edit to add; And just incase any of you were wondering was i breast feed in public or not,
Yes, i was breast feed in public

, and grew up big and strong because i did.

edit on 15-7-2011 by meathed because: (no reason given)

edit on 15-7-2011 by meathed because: i made mistakes as i was thinking about boobs

I like your attitude,If everyone felt as you do the world would be a different place,breastfeeding is the one thing I can say I have done right by my kids,especially since learning of all of the crap in our foods and water and like you,have grown up healthy and strong.Women need to know how important it is and be encouraged to feed them at least for the first 6 months.I can say though it not easy to do because it causes cracking and bleeding the first time and can be quite painful but after the fist month it gets easier.Please if you are planning to marry and have kids by all means encourage your spouse to breastfeed it's well worth it.

reply to post by beezzer


I realize you've been asked this before - but where does it say Muslims complained? I don't see where it says anyone complained

Attitudes by region
Canada
In Canada, Section 28 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms gives equal rights and freedoms to men and women. The Canadian Charter does not explicitly mention breastfeeding. However, a 1989 Supreme Court of Canada decision in Brooks v. Safeway Canada held that as pregnancy was a condition unique to women, discrimination on the basis of pregnancy is a form of sex discrimination. Some commentators note, however, that the case was concerned with maternity pay and not with the right to breastfeed in public. In June 2009, 27-year-old Tanya Constable was approached by a Walmart employee in the baby section of the Langford, British Columbia retail store and told, "You can't be here," suggesting that she move to the washroom instead. According to Constable, when she asked to speak to the manager, "The manager said that if someone complains, the store's policy is to ask them to move." Constable then decided to leave the store rather than breastfeed her 11-month-old daughter in the washroom. Walmart Canada later apologized for asking the mother to move and said that,"Customers can breastfeed in whatever manner they see fit anywhere in the store."[4]

Saudi Arabia
Women in Saudi Arabia openly breastfeed their infants even though they may be fully veiled.[7][8]

United Kingdom
Breastfeeding in public (restaurants, cafes, libraries etc.) is protected under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 under the provision of goods, facilities and services section. If the child is under 6 months old, the mother has additional protection under a 2008 amendment to the act which protects maternity rights. A UK Department of Health survey found that 84% (about 5 out of 6 people) find breastfeeding in public acceptable if done discreetly, however 67% (2 out of 3) of mothers are worried about general opinion being against public breastfeeding.[9] To combat these fears in Scotland, the Scottish Parliament passed legislation safeguarding the freedom of women to breastfeed in public in 2005.[10] The legislation allows for fines of up to £2500 for preventing breastfeeding in public places.[11] The Equality Act 2010 also prohibits discrimination against women who are breastfeeding.[12]

United States Most US jurisdictions permit breastfeeding in public.[13][14] In the United States, for instance, a federal law enacted in 1999[15] specifically provides that "a woman may breastfeed her child at any location in a Federal building or on Federal property, if the woman and her child are otherwise authorized to be present at the location." However, these laws generally do not apply to rules imposed by private organisations or on private property, such as restaurants, airlines, shopping malls etc.

en.wikipedia.org...

Recent controversies
In November 2006, Emily Gillette, a 27-year-old from Santa Fe, New Mexico was refused service in Burlington, Vermont after being asked to leave a Freedom Airlines flight by a flight attendant after she refused to breastfeed her child under a blanket.[16] During June, 2007, Brooke Ryan was dining in a booth at the rear of an Applebee's restaurant when she decided to breastfeed her 7-month-old son. While she said she attempted to be discreet, another patron complained that her partially revealed breast was "indecent exposure." Both a waitress and the manager asked her to cover up. She handed him a copy of the Kentucky law[17] that permitted public breastfeeding, but he would not relent. She ended up feeding her son in her car and later organized several "nurse-in" protests in front of the restaurant and other public places.[18] In Parenting magazine there was a debate on whether moms have the right to breastfeed anywhere they would like. The results were 85% said yes and 15% said no.

Barbara Walters
In 2005, Barbara Walters remarked on her talk show The View that she felt uncomfortable sitting next to a breastfeeding mother during a flight. Her comments upset some viewers who began organizing protests over the internet. A group of about 200 mothers staged a public "nurse in" where they breastfed their babies outside ABC's headquarters in New York.[19]

Facebook controversy
Facebook has come under fire for removing photos of mothers breastfeeding their children, citing offensive content in violation of the Facebook Terms of Service.[20] Facebook claimed that these photos violated their decency code by showing an exposed breast, even when the baby covered the nipple. This action was described as hypocritical, since Facebook took several days to respond to calls to deactivate a paid advertisement for a dating service that used a photo of a topless model.[21] The breastfeeding controversy continued following public protests and the growth in the online membership in the Facebook group titled "Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene! (Official petition to Facebook)."[22]

en.wikipedia.org...

This is getting to be silly. It’s one thing when Bill Maher comes out against breastfeeding in public: he’s confused and titillated (pun intended) by the workings of the female body. He likened breastfeeding to masturbation, which shows you how hazy his thinking is. But then Facebook takes down breastfeeding images and MySpace does the same thing, and has the world gone insane? These are pictures mostly of babies. Yes, you can see the curve of some breasts, and sometimes—gasp!—a sliver of nipple.

alphamom.com...

Nursing a child in public so long as a woman is covered and modesty as prescribed in Islam for women is maintained is not forbidden. Here, in Madinah- in Saudi Arabia, perhaps the most conservative and modest society on Earth, I see women nursing their babies in the Mosques in women only sections, and I see women in niqab able to nurse their babies as well at the malls.

www.cafemom.com...

So, a big step forward but the question still remains – what is so offensive about breastfeeding in public? And is it justified? It’s interesting that opposition to it seems to be largely a ‘western’ issue. This is not to say that people don’t take offence to mothers breastfeeding in Asian, Middle Eastern or African countries, but opposition in the west tends to be more systematic and institutionalised. This is actually quite intriguing because it flouts the ‘normal’ expectations of ‘modesty’ in western and eastern women – veiled women in many countries feel no shame in breastfeeding their babies in public. This may be because of a perception that breastfeeding in public is a ‘savage’ act. People in ‘uncivilised’ countries breastfeed their babies in public because they are not familiar with the nuances of a civilised life and mostly do not have privacy at home (because of their exploding populations, also a result of their ‘savagery’).

www.womensviewsonnews.org...

were you wondering who might complain - if not Muslims?
www.msnbc.msn.com...
abcnews.go.com...
www.facebook.com...
www.babyzone.com...
www.breastfeeding.com...
www.vancouverobserver.com...
www.breastfeeding-problems.com...
breastfortheweary.com...
breastfortheweary.com...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...
www.empowher.com...
www.detnews.com...

you missed some stuff when you were doing your research

if you have to be deceitful - how worthy can your cause be?

there's no honor in trickery

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