Columnist's Corner: Going public

And the right honourable member for Stafford is certainly right, if you've managed to publicly breastfeed without noticing a hint of disapprobation then you're either very lucky or remarkably thick-skinned. Many breastfeeding mums have experienced not just clouds of disapproval wafting their way, but have been asked to leave cafes and restaurants when feeding, have been ushered in the direction of dingy toilet blocks clutching a hungry baby or have even faced negative and abusive comments from bystanders.

And objections to public breastfeeding aren't a purely male preserve, I've encountered plenty of distaste for the most innocent and natural of mammary functions from people sporting a pair of their own. A good friend of mine, breastfeeding quietly in the corner of a cafe one day, was astonished when a middle-aged woman came up to her with a face like thunder, pointed at her nursing baby and exclaimed "That's disgusting! I'm trying to eat. You need to go somewhere else to do that". My friend was so stunned that she just laughed, but the episode would have had many a mother breaking off the feed and fleeing for the door.

So I welcome the prospect of the new legislation, but it also saddens me. What kind of society do we live in that such legislation is necessary to protect women who want or need to breastfeed in public? How can it be fully acceptable for us to have to face tit soup on the pages of commuters' papers in the morning, to see scantily-clad boobs used to sell everything from shampoo to cars, but not to discreetly use our own breasts to feed our young? The social hypocrisy that sees breastfeeding as somehow 'unnatural' while the sexuality of the breast is pervasive, is truly mind-boggling.

You can't even see much breast during a feed for gawd's sake, you'd have to really crane to cop an eyeful and even then it'd be less that what's on display in your average bra ad. No, it seems it's not the breast that's really the problem, let's be honest, it's the use of the breast to feed a baby that causes outrage.

You have to wonder, what's happening in the minds of these people that they find the union of infant mouth and nipple so disturbing? Perhaps in some cases it's a generational issue - mothers and children of the 60s under the influence of the era's feeding trend and accepting only nourishment in bottle form. Certainly the lack of breastfeeding role models for a long time made the image of a suckling infant relatively rare for many people, so perhaps more unsettling. On the part of some women, jealousy probably also plays a role.

But I suspect that the real reason for many male objections to breastfeeding is a desire to keep breasts firmly in their, sexual, place: It's not that you're getting your boobs out that's the problem, it's that you're getting them out for the benefit of someone other than the lads.

Times are slowly changing, and it's gradually becoming easier for mums to find places where they can breastfeed their babies in comfort, at least in some parts of the UK. In the meantime, if your attempts to reconcile breastfeeding your baby with an ability to leave the house draw criticism, then try assuming an air of indifference. Remember, when it comes to objections to public breastfeeding, indecency is in the mind of the beholder.

And I can't resist a final comment on the contributor to the Sunday Times who complained that publicly breastfeeding mums in Starbucks so intimidated her that she felt compelled to hide her bottle and pretend to breastfeed her own child by thrusting her nipple uselessly in its mouth. For pity's sake, get a grip woman!