breastfeeding abroad

[EMS]

I'm currently living in Brazil, and have been interested by attitudes, both personal and official, to breastfeeding. I wrote a post about this on my blog, in case anyone is interested. (Hope this is ok to post this here.)

www.thegoldenpapaya.com

I'd be interested to hear feedback or insight or other mamas' relevant experiences, if you feel inclined to share.

[iowaorganic]

DH and I went to Brazil last year on vacation and we were both very impressed with how much and open breastfeeding was going on. On every domestic flight in Brazil (and there were lots) we saw mothers bfing thier little ones and quite a few not so little ones. On the beach in Rio, restaurants, etc. In fact we never saw a mama with a bottle.

I am in Iowa and I fully see the educated and bfing vs. high school diploma and formula thing. All of my girlfriends who have college degrees bf and the ones who went for like CNA training all did formula pretty much from the get go. We started going to a new church last spring and pretty much all the babies are bf. I don't knonw the economic or education status of all of them though.

[lifeguard]

I had ds in Costa Rica & we moved back to Canada when he was 6 months. I never felt uncomfortable or self-conscious bfing there. I saw women bfing all the time in public & no one batted an eye. I certainly feel more obliged to "cover up" here (but now that it's getting cold that isn't really an issue!).

Funny antidote: when I first moved to Costa Rica an American woman I had just met said to me "Watch out they just whip it out everywhere here!" referring to bfing. Obviously that was before she knew my plans!

[EMS]

It's encouraging to hear pro-breastfeeding stories from Latin America. I think this is a fairly recent development, after the Nestle's formula debacle.

[zubeldia]

Glad to read this...
We're going to Spain next week and I'm a little nervous about bfing there. Any one have experience of bfing there?

Alex

[EMS]

I traveled to Spain when I was pregnant (not breastfeeding), but from what I know the culture there is pretty accepting of little kids, and also of nursing in public. I'd be interested to hear what your experiences are there, though.

[calpurnia]

i haven't breastfed in spain so this is second hand, but a friend reported feeling eyeballed breastfeeding her son (he must have been about 6 months) in cafes in spain

i loved our recent time in south africa & swaziland. nobody batted an eyelid at dd (16 months) breastfeeding anywhere - planes, crowded buses, the street, cafes etc. especially in swaziland where the market women sat with their breasts out for their toddlers to latch on to. everyone thought it was hilarious that dp carried dd in a backpack though!