Seems we have all gotten a little prudish in our old age, well especially in the West, and we forget that the human female comes equipped with ‘breasts’ loaded with all the nutrients for healthy babies and relaxed content children. Let alone the health benefits for Mum. Everybody loves to see babies and pregnant ladies but some shy away from seeing a child fed from the breast, no matter how discreet woman make this, some will find the time to complain about the most natural thing in the universe. Sometimes woman just have to go out from your home whether it be for sanity or you just have to get food and water and during this time their children more than likely will want to be fed. Many Mothers complain that there just are not enough clean public places where post natal woman can go and feed their children, forcing them to face the fact that they will have to feed in public, and ask yourself this question would you really want to feed your child bottle or breast in a public toilet. Should a mother be confined to the home for the first 18 months of a child’s life?
Breast feeding
In the isle of Mann, A British island between Ireland and the North West coast of UK mainland they are trying to put forward a law to ban any public place for stopping a mother feeding their children, as a few establishments have taken the draconian action of asking a mother to leave a restaurant for feeding her child, however it has been put on hold
Member of the House of Keys (MHK) Juan Watterson put forward proposals which would have made it illegal to stop a mother breastfeeding in a public place.
This issue has been raging for a while everywhere in the world and it seems many of the older generation find it harder to accept that woman are free to be able to travel and have a life whilst having a child after all their generation of mothers stayed ‘cooped up’ till child was near school age, in their opinion so should mothers of today!
Breast feeding
Here in Thailand like many things that people find liberating is the freedom to feed your child wherever. Children are doted on especially foreign babies to Thailand the Thais adore their fair skin and stare and smile wherever you go. However this leads to different challenges like trying to find a quiet place to feed your child, as Shelly Rivoli said in her Blog about her travels with baby
Well-meaning strangers wanted, and even needed, to see this child, from the orange-robed monks leaving the Temple of the Emerald Buddha to the janitor sweeping the back corridor. They had songs she apparently needed to hear, she had feet that apparently needed to be tickled. We had about 4 to 6 hours worth of exploring to do at the compound, and the normally simple act of feeding my baby became an exhausting quest to escape these extremely friendly people. She was 7 months old, highly distractible and, as you might guess, increasingly fussy.
As time went by and repeat attempts were made, including while leaning against a less-than-comfortable cement wall, I began to suspect I was a little too discrete in my method. As soon as she’d latch on, someone would approach us smiling and assuming that the baby was asleep, hoping to get a look at her. This was awkward. When visiting other people’s countries, I always try to be a good guest. I would no more flash the goods than wear shoes into someone’s house, or visit their temples with bare shoulders.
Still, it became clear to me that, as fascinated as these people were by the Western baby, it was not even on the radar that I might be trying to breastfeed.
