Out and About - Breastfeeding with confidence

Hi New to the forum - how are you all?
I'm Scottish, but have been living in Australia for 3 years now. My DD has been a boobie baby for 8 months and we are loving it.

In Australia Breastfeeding is protected, so if someone comes up to you and asks you to stop or to move then you can tell them where to go - it's discrimination. However, I was shocked to learn recently that this is not the case England.

Over here my LO and I have enjoyed breastfeeding in shopping centre food courts (baby rooms smell of stinky nappies!), in cafe's, restaurants, pubs, parks, on the beach, and basically any where else we have been when she has needed a feed. We are very confident about out and about feeders and I don't think anyone has even given us a second glance. However, what am I to do when my then 9-10 months old visit the UK on hols?

I understand that the Scots have as usual managed to get their act together, but in England, can I just stop in the street and sit on a bench and feed her? Flop them out when having lunch in a Cafe?! Expose the girls to come fresh air in the park? I'm not too bothered if people want to stare, I can cope with that, but should I expect negative comments? We can't hide under a blanket, my LO will just pull the blanket off and look at it wondering why this stupid thing was on her head, it will be distracting making every feed twice as long! I'm not prepared to hide so what are my options?

Will these new laws in place by then and since my LO will be over that stupid 6 month rule, will it make any difference. Do English politicians not listen to the top notch research of the WHO? ( I signed the petition btw)

So what do you do when your LO wants a feed? Can I just get the girls out? :boob:

I personally did BF in public - i have ha negative comments but whether there is a law or not i tell them where to go. If they don't like it don't look. I have always BF discretely anyway so why should they have a problem. A couple of our shopping centres do have BF areas - not rooms with dirty nappies (yay!)

I know several of the others are happy to BF in public in the UK but it would be nice to have some legal backing to thrust in busybodies faces!!

dont want to jinx myself but i've never received any negative comments. i've :boob: in public for nearly 7 month now and wasnt even aware of it being illegal until a couple of weeks ago lol. i've fed in my catholic church, pubs, cafes, trains, restaurants, park benches, beaches, etc and 9 times out of 10 dont think anyone has even realised as i'm discreet. if anyone did try to tell me to stop i'd tell them in unlady like terms were to go lol.

I breastfeed in public with pride - and 2 fingers to any one who dares to have an opinion! :haha:

The only comment that wasnt 'encouragement' was om a bench in a pedestrianised Highstreet on Friday. An old lady said to her hubby "eeee, look at that Lass feeding her babby". Hubby replied "eeeee, i'm gonna go have a look - not seen a decent pair of boobs in years" :haha:

There is no reason why we shouldn't all be allowed to feed in public, its just some people's narrow mindedness that makes some bf mothers feel they can't or shouldn't feed there children in public.

After being really nervous about doing it, it now doesn't bother me, although hubby still gets a bit nervous, dont know why! I'm quite proud to do it.

Hi I'm Scottish and live in England and have never had anyone stop me from BF in public. My son is now 20months and still going strong.

The provisions for bf mothers are really rather good here in England. Lots of feeding areas for BF babies in shopping centres, department stores, public toilets.

I've bf on a pallet of water in the middle of Costco without anyone giving me a second glance, bf on a shopping centre bench with a group of teenage boys on the other end of the bench - they didn't mind, didn't care, bf in parks, zoos, supermarkets etc.

All well and fine. I think it's really not in the English peoples nature to complain about such things.

You will be fine here - honest.

I bfd in public all the time, noone will tell you to stop, not if they want to deal with a hormonal liberated women, I think more people have sense

Officially you can still be arrested for indecent exposure, but I think most people dont know that. If anyone was to stop you, bluff them, tell them you are legally allowed to and I doubt if anyone would know its not true. I still feed Rhianna if I need to, although I've not had to for a while now, but thankfully no one has ever made any comment, nice or nasty.