This is what offended so many.

[motheringforme]

I'm the one who had to recently leave my church. This is how I nurse my daughter in public. I don't use a cover and don't see why I need to. I personally try not to show much although I don't have a problem with those who do.  I was accused of being immodest. Can't you just see how I let it all hang out?

[motheringforme]

By the way, I love my new church. I was at a bonfire recently and needed to feed the baby. I said something about going to my car to feed the baby (mostly because it was cold and because I was scared because of what happened before), and the pastor's wife told me just to feed her right there, so I did.

[Buzzer Beater]

I'm glad you are happy with your new church. You and your babe are adorable.

[34me]

I'm so glad the new church is so welcoming.  You guys are beautiful!

[IwannaBanRN]

Hey, it's Becky Wheeler! I don't see how that is, in any way offensive or obvious that you're feeding baby. People need to just get over their sexual hangups over breasts.

[nstewart]

I'm glad you've found somewhere accepting that makes you happy! Beautiful photo!

[Asiago]

Glad to hear everything worked out so well! You and baby nursing are a wonderful vision and it's difficult to understand why anyone would be opposed. A century or so ago babies were commonly nursed in church. Here is an image from 1871

http://rixarixa.blogspot.com/2010/08/breastfeeding-history-moment-lds.html

Edited by Asiago - 2/2/12 at 12:21pm

[motheringforme]

Love the pic from the article.

[terraka]

People who are not nursing (almost everyone) do not understand. A church, even more than other places, should be accepting. The people there should be thankful and happy that a mother has brought her young as God loves children. Don't let anything like this affect you! 

I am from Europe but I live in the USA. It is truly obvious that people here subscribe to a code of modesty that seems to backfire in so many occasions. A cover attracts more attention than a discreet public feed.

I will never forget what my partner's American mother told me upon seeing me breast-feed at JFK airport. "Do you see that guy over there?", she asked, "you made his day". Her one-dimensional thinking was very offensive to me, but I did not even answer and just continued. She never nursed and instead chose formula. Never having been in my situation, her ignorance was understandable and pardonable.

It is truly a blessing when a little one comes into the world and into a church. A little one needs to eat. Keep up the good work! 

[motheringforme]

Thank you terraka. When I nurse her in public, I always have a fear that someone else will say something. My hope and prayer is that one day no woman will have to have that fear.  I consider myself pretty conservative and dress pretty modestly. I just don't see breastfeeding as an immodest act. When you dress immodestly, you do it (usually) to attract sexual attention. That's not what a nursing mother is doing. Hopefully society will understand that one day.

[kitteh]

That picture, and the fact that people still decide to take offense when literally NOTHING can be seen, make it clear that it's really not about modesty. Many people who are offended by NIP are not only offended if mama decides to get naked from the waist up to feed Jr. When I was a waitress, one of my co-workers was really uncomfortable by nursing mothers in the dining room, and he even complained about a mom with a newborn who was using one of those Udder Covers things. "It's still OBVIOUS what she is doing under there!" he said, as if she were doing something inherently shameful. And he told me that if he stood quietly near the table he could "hear the baby slurping and sucking" and said he was grossed out by it.

I told him that his hang ups were his problem, but that the only person being shameful in that room was him. It's the same idea as the MIL who suggested that terraka made some stranger's day by nursing in public. I'm sorry, but breasts do not exist in order to titillate and excite men, and if using them as nature intended makes some men (and women) uncomfortable then I think they should examine their own misogynistic viewpoints and leave the mamas to feed their children in peace.

[Asiago]

Well said Kitteh