FertilityZone

hi ladies - just looking for some opinions.

I quit breastfeeding early on with my first daughter. I struggled with her latch, thrush and a bit of PND...i also dont think it helped how uncomfortable i was with feeding infront of others. I live close by to DH's family but not my own. As it happens with my newest daughter i feel it is going much better and i am really enjoying feeding her. In my family it is (and always has been) totally okay to just feed infront of my mum, dad, brother, bil, sister etc and this is what my sister has always done when feeding her 3. but i have had a few comments from MIL which makes me feel uncomfortable. I remember her making me feel a bit uncomfortable with my first but yday we called round to their house and C needed a feed. I asked FIL if it would be okay to feed her in the conservatory ( they were sitting in the living room but you can see into the conservatory if you look) MIL quickly said i think you'd be more comfortable upstairs. it makes me feel really uncomfortable - especially because when im out in public with her i dont want to feel i cant feed my baby. She'd have had a duck egg if she'd have seen me yday afternoon- i had an urgent eye appointment (ive lost almost all the sight in one eye since giving birth) and i literally had to get out the door and didnt have anything with me except the baby. She needed feeding so i had to do it in the corridor of the eye hospital and while the eye dr examined my eye without a feeding scarf or anything....do you think this is okay to do? (not that i had alot of choice lol) do you ladies feed openly in public?

Thanks for the brill advice and reassurance ladies :)

I think i just need to make sure im wearing the right clothes. I had a buttoned blouse that day at the eye drs but have started wearing 2 vest tops now so im covering up a bit more. im sure i'll get better at this lol It doesnt bother me at all but i worry about what other people think which i know i shouldnt. i need to be able to do this though as i dont drive it can take us quite a while to get places so chances are a trip out will involve a feed (unless DH is off work and driving us somewhere)

It really does annoy me at mil/fils house but we were invited yday and we went home again before C was due a feed. I guess i just dont get peoples views on it...even before i had children i used to think it was great when i saw women nursing their babies out in public. It seems to be the idea or thought of breastfeeding itself rather than what you can actually see (as you've said the baby's head covers most)

thanks for the recommendation gracie. I will look into this. i think this would be especially good at night because at the moment i am using lots of cloth nappy inserts which seem to soak quite quickly...ive actually got a fantastic product for the day time feeds i bought while i was pregnant as i leaked so much with dd1 when i fed her. its called milkies milksaver and it catches all the leaking milk and i have been freezing it.

p.s my eye should be okay - i was born with cataracts and have had one operated on several years ago...i think the pressure of pushing in labour has caused a problem but something they can correct in a couple of weeks - on the plus side both of my daughters (who each had 50% chance of being born with cataracts) havent got them :D which makes me a very happy mummy :) xxx

grrr i feel so on my own with this ( i know, hormones hormones hormones!!!) MIL asked us to go on a walk to the park with the girls. I fed LO before we left but as im feeding on demand and still seems to be every 2 - 2.5 hrs and she is still only 4 wks old we are still not in any sort of pattern. We went for a walk and then went to a park - 10 mins after we arrived at the park DD1 was playing with some other children and the baby woke up (partly because MIL and FIL were talking to her trying to get her to wake up!) She started rooting and i picked her up to take her to a bench to feed her...mil says "oh shall we head back now" (WHAT? do i really want to walk all the way back to the car with a crying hungry baby and a tantruming toddler who has just been dragged away from the park that we've just arrived at!?!) I said to her no i would feed on the bench several feet away...she insisted again we go home but i just went ahead and fed the baby. grrrr she makes me feel like im being so inppropriate. The next day we were invited to a get together for a buffet tea at her sisters...we kind of had to go so everyone could see the baby. i'd already decided in my mind to feed upstairs or in an unused room due to the confined space and the amount of people but when i arrived as soon as DH was out of ear shot MIL says to me " when C needs a feed you can feed her up in my sisters room"....i HATE being told where i can feed my baby - as it happens i would have anyway but i just dont want her to feel like everytime we go out somewhere she will pick an appropriate place for me to feed! am i being too liberal here!? i mean i dont know how i would ever go out anywhere with my baby and toddler if i didnt feed in public! do i really want to be sat on a public loo toilet seat feeding my baby and trying to keep my 3 year old entertained for 30/40 mins . makes me mad ! :(

Thanks for the great advice :) concequently i havent seen mil for about a week now. I was invited over on saturday but made an excuse not to go :S if it persists i will ask DH to say something. as far as feeding everywhere else goes - i'll carry on as i have been doing :) Jasper - my mum was a regular breastfeeder in church! p.s love the idea about making mil eat in the bathroom! very tempted! lol lol