My motivation for posting this question was because I was particularly annoyed by the nursing room at church, there isn't a policy that it's the only place you can nurse, though it may become so, but even without the policy, I'm irritated by the notice on the door and the room itself.
Our church is new, we meet in the local boys and girls club, so lots of things have been set up on an as needed basis, when we started there was only one nursery, for birth to three, it was quickly realised that they needed to split that.
There have been a lot of babies born recently and apparently this led to a steady trickle of women going into the nursery to nurse and to change diapers, which was upsetting the slightly older children, so the solution was to set up a separate nursing and changing room.
Mothers of babies under one were emailed to let us know of this and why and the email included a sentence about being welcome to nurse anywhere we were comfortable, which all seemed fine. I never even saw the nursing room as I just nursed where I was at and have everything I need to a sanitary diaper change in my bag, so I do it wherever there is a space on the floor where we won't get tripped over!
I had a run in with the pastor and his assistant about covering up when nursing which I posted a separate thread on, so though I didn't changing anything I did, I was more alert to what others were doing and what provisions there were.
It turned out that baby was a bit fussy, but not needing to nurse in service last Sunday, so I was walking about just outside the gym where the service is held and could still listen to the sermon as they've rigged up an extra speaker out there.
All this meant I had a chance to have a look at the nursing and changing room, it's actually an office and is used as a base for setting up and taking down all that's needed for one service, so one side of the room was a pile of boxes. There were two chairs, one looked ok, though I haven't tried it, a portable rocking chair, the other was the regular office chair - I may be being awkward, but I've tried nursing in an office chair and it's not a comfortable experience.
Which brings me to problem one, there were only two chairs, both occupied, I didn't have the option to nurse in there even if I wanted to.
The door was wide open with the assistant wandering in and out clearing away stuff that had only been needed before service. There was also a big internal window, such that anyone going to the loo or to check on a child would see in.
Both the women in there were using covers, hardly surprising given they were on display to the world, I'd have felt self concious nursing in there.
They were chatting away and would not have been able to hear the service.
The notice on the door annoyed me further, as it said "adult women only", "women only" would have been fine as it could still be interpreted as a high school age sister isn't welcome to change a baby in there (though I don't see why they shouldn't be able to), but could also be interpreted so as to indicate that a teen mum would be welcome. Adding the unnecessary word "adult" made me angry, there are teenagers in the church, I hope none of them become mums whilst they are still teens, but it happens, plus, if I happened to meet a teen mum, I wouldn't want them to see that notice.
The notice also says it's for use during the service only, which because of the location of the room does make sense.
It all pretty much makes sense if comfort is about noise and you want to go somewhere quieter and also somewhere if the baby fusses at any point it doesn't matter. Though I would still consider it a very unideal nursing room, someone continually wondering in and out would bother my baby, the lack of privacy defeats the nice thought that maybe the mother would be more comfortable and only 2 chairs when there are at least 10 nursing pairs is inadequate.
So it could be seen as a token gesture that's not very well thought out, but that unfortunately isn't the whole story, as it may well become policy that you are only to nurse there and the reason for that is so no men risk seeing a breast. At which point it become RIDCULOUS, provide a room to nurse in but you'd still have to use a cover to acheive the desired result, when some women and babies may not want to use a cover, or even be able to sucessfully latch and position with one, plus you are only allowed to nurse during service, not beforehand, despite numerous reasons to be there early, or stay afterwards. That would be entirely unsatisfactory.
So that's the situation that made me ask the question, it's so obviously ridiculous that if they did put such a rule in place, one email should be sufficient for them to temporarily rescind it, even if it just made them rethink the location and hours.
I think what annoys me most is that for me nursing in church is a place I feel least on display as people behind me see my back, people in front of me don't see anything, there is no one looking at me of either sex straight on and early on it didn't really matter to me whether it was a man or a woman who could see! Plus, I actually want to hear the sermon, the current provision of the nursing room actually encourages you to try and feed at that time, even if the whole nursing thing didn't irritate me so much I'd not be happy with feeling forced to not hear the sermon.
I wonder what kind of answers I'd get on other mums boards, people here are so pro breastfeeding that a nursing room is a bonus, I was thinking more about mums in general what subtle message does it communicate, because in general it does seem that if you create a space to do something then that's where that thing should be done, you read in the reading corner, sleep in a bed, nurse in a nursing room....
It seems like a lot of people would love better provision of nursing rooms for practicality and comfort, but they wouldn't be called nursing rooms, but family rooms, be a space to nurse, pump, feed, change etc. Which works great for malls, airports etc. just not so logical for churches where things are happening at a specific time and other children are often in other activities.
If it happens to come up for me, I now feel comfortable supporting provision of family rooms in all sorts of places.