breastfeeding and church

I don't really know, as I guess it depends on the church and how far you're prepared to brazen it out. But I refuse personally to hide anywhere, at any time, when I nurse my children. That includes in the front pew at church, if that's where I am when my babe wants to eat. Luckily my church is totally embracing of nursing mothers.

My feeling is that if you go ahead and nurse, someone might 'offer' you somewhere with more privacy, but you can smile nicely and decline. But it depends if you have the courage to do that - I feel strongly enough that I do so even if it confuses/offends the offerer. I'm sure Mary never hid behind a curtain to nurse Jesus.

I am not one for hiding when I nurse either. I do not regularly attend church but the few times I do they always try to pull the same thing on me, but I just ignore it and do what GOD intended me to do! These people are suposed to love and respect and accept you into their hearts! You do not make the sinners go behind a curtain to pray? Not a great analogy but you get my drift!!!

Last week was the first time we went since dd was born, and I just nursed right in the service. No one said anything to me. Though, towards the end, she got fussy, so we went out to an empty meeting room, and apparently, there was a meeting in there after the service, so several men walked in on me lounging in there with my boob full out nursing dd.(I had pulled it out over my shirt because it was easier, and I didn't care about modesty, being alone.) They said, "woah, nursing going on in here!" and left, smiling. A good NIP experience.

I always nurse right where I am in the pew (unless I have my choir robe on, just because things get a little tricky- they're not exactly made to be "easy access" for a nursling )

Anyway, yeah, I usually just nurse where I am sitting. I have had other mothers come up to me and tell me that it is great to see a mother nursing in church... I have never had a problem with it, and maybe because I am around church so much, they are just used to me nursing whenever and wherever...

I sit towards the back of the church in case I need to leave in the middle of the service, I don't want to distract anyone. Our church is very large and it would take me a minute to walk from the front pew to the back. So I sit in the back and take turns nursing the babies. If they get loud I go to the nursing mothers room, which has a TV to watch the service. Mainly I nurse in the sanctuary though. I think as long as your baby is not making noise it would be fine for you to nurse in the sanctuary. Maybe if you sit in the very back you will have more privacy. I have only received positive comments from NIP at church.

Hey OP, any chance you are LDS? (You said you didn't like disappearing for TWO hours...well, I disappear for all THREE! ).

LDS is so pro-breastfeeding in recent history, but so PRUDE, too! It is disappointing. I feel free to NIP when I visit a congregation other than my own, but I feel the condemnation would be too much for me to handle in my own. I've talked about it with the other women in my congregation (lots of AP sisters!) and they agree. And now I see a lot of bottle-feeding going on... If we were more open about BFing, this may not be the case.

UGH! this is the kind of thing that bugs me about my faith tradition. What did the mormon pioneer women do? Stay home from church for the first year of her baby's life?

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You can come to my church if you want. (I live in your area.) I've nursed pretty much everywhere in the church except the nursery. I've even nursed on stage during communion with everyone looking at me. While I try not to let my breasts hang out, I refuse to be relagated to a backroom or to be made to feel ashamed of something that's natural and pure. No one has ever said anything negative to me. If they did I would schedule an educational session.

i havnt read all the replies yet but here is my thoughts on it. Many times it has run thru my head. Ask yourself this, Do u honestly beleive that when Mary was Bfing Jesus that she had to leave the service to do so? In my heart I know that she sat right there thru the service and nursed him. I suppose it is possible that since he was Jesus that he never needed to nurse during church but if he did need to I think they sat right there in the pew and did so.

There is no way I would spend my time sitting behind a curtain in church missing the service. I do get up and go to the rear of the church were there is a small wall seperating me from everyone but I do so not because of church rules but because ds wouldnt stay latched on for looking around if I didnt.

There is absoulutly no reason to feel ashamed about feeding ur child the way God intended that child to be fed. I would be very offended if anyone in the church made a issue of it. I do not cover up with a blanket tho I do try to be as modist as possible for my sake and the congregation.

I would say, without reading other posts, that it sort of depends on the age of your babe.

When my DD was young (under 6 mos) I could nurse anywhere and no one really knew. But then she started to be more interested in her surroundings (and I never got her used to nursing under a blanket) and she would pop off a lot, which exposed the nipple and some flesh. However... even then I still tried to nurse in the main meeting, I would just try to situate myself in a location within the meeting room that few (if any) men could see. I figure the women who want to be offended can choose to feel that way. I don't try as hard to hide what I'm doing from them because they have the parts. IYKWIM.

I did mostly stop NIP when DD was around 15-18 months old. Mostly she didn't ask and didn't need it... but I was also less comfy because my area is quite hostile and I was less of a lactivist at that time than I am now. Anyway... it's not an issue for us for now, we made it to just a month past TWO and the boobs hurt WAY too much with this pregnancy to have her hanging on them. However, I've let her know she can look forward to more boobie after the baby arrives! She's happy about that, it seems.

Anyway... back to the subject, if your babe is still young, you could try teaching him/her to nurse under a blankie or in a nicely concealing sling. I have the Moby D for my second nursling (due Oct) this time and it seems like it will work beautifully for nursing as well as babywearing.

I actually did have someone come up to me and give me a piece of her mind about my NIP at church. I posted about it once- "my church friend" I think I called it. I still do NIP at church even though dd is 28 mo. I figure that the people around me would rather have her quiet and nursing than talking loud/crying/etc. I figure that people shouldn't be looking at me anyway. Sometimes I try to be extra careful if I"m sitting and someone is kneeling behind me so that they are very close to my shoulder and therefore can see more of my breast if DD pulls off. My DD is old enough to know that she has to keep me covered and she usually complies. I don't punish her if she doesn't, just try to keep my flesh as covered as I can. I know that some people don't care at all if other people see them, but I try to be cautious but not to the point that I woulnd't nurse her if I thought someone might see.

One thing that I have also done is to sit towards the side of teh church so that everyone's attention should be more towards the middle. That way, I can put DD on that breast to nurse and I dont have to worry as much about people seeing. I think most people assume that she's just sleeping since she's so old

Well, I spoke too soon. I had to nurse in church this morning. But it was painless...we sat in the very back row, against the wall, and I used my nursing cover-up. No one noticed, especially since the lady in the aisle with us was asleep!

But it's not religions and churches that have a problem with it; it's individual people. There are plenty of stores that have gotten into trouble for asking nursing moms to leave or go into the bathroom to nurse. Some people are just like that, in church and outside of church.

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This is too funny I was going to post the same thing!!!