I think the church should accommodate mommies who want to breastfeed their babies.  As a matter of fact, breastfeeding should be encouraged!  However, it should be done in such a way so as not to distract others in the service.  I have been to churches where mothers with babies are reserved the last two pews.  And a church I used to go to has a special room for mothers with babies and small children where they can breastfeed and so forth.  There are speakers in that room so the mothers can still be part of the service and hear the sermons etc.  I do not think that such an arrangement makes mothers second class citizens of the church at all!

I have nursed my daughter in public, but only in a VERY discreet fashion and making sure no one could tell or see anything. So I didn't do it while she was still very young, or when she was older than many wean either.

Your post, Lavender, reminded me of something though. Not related to church ... I was part of a nursing mom's group, and I met other nursing moms in another city at a mall when my daughter was probably less than 2 months old. I remember one of the women who was very well-endowed, shall we say, just unbuttoned her shirt down the front and plopped EVERYthing out right there in the mall and started nursing her son. I was TERRIBLY embarrassed to be standing there watching her, and it probably put me off of nursing in public myself, even though as I said I was always very careful to be very discreet.

You're absolutely right when you say "I don't show you mine so please don't show me yours" .... at least not in the way this woman did it! I think I am still embarrassed all these years later to remember it!

Grace and peace,
trishanna

Hi InHisPresence (I still love that name, btw!)

I really do agree with you on the points of not offending others, etc. And incidentally, I was "shown the room" because I had a nursing baby, but I didn't need to nurse during the service either.

And not that you are replying to me, but I guess I wanted to clarify something in what I said. Perhaps it can even be helpful to other nursing mothers. I didn't use a blanket when I nursed my baby. In my opinion, draping a blanket over the baby only draws attention to what you are doing.

There are styles of clothing that are very helpful to nursing mothers. Some clothing made for nursing, and some I modified. (For example, casual outdoors in the cooler months, I cut slits in a t-shirt and wore a loose sweatshirt over it.). My whole intention with my clothing was to be able to nurse my daughter WITHOUT any possibility of being exposed. It CAN actually be done, with properly made and arranged clothing. I actually followed the advice of nursing in front of a mirror to check it out, and it looks like the baby is sleeping in your arms. NOTHING is exposed. And if the baby suddenly unlatches and turns their head, still nothing is exposed, because the clothing covers everything. When I said discreet, I meant DISCREET!!! LOL, people have been right next to me, looking at my nursing daughter, and saw NOTHING and didn't even realize that she was nursing. The only ones who could tell were other nursing mothers who recognized the positioning as being slightly different from a sleeping baby.

I just wanted to point that out. I would have been comfortable nursing this way pretty much anywhere, but I actually would NOT have been comfortable with a blanket drape. I tried that at first, and found that it draws attention, and I was afraid it wasn't sufficient to protect the mother's privacy in cases like you describe, such as the blanket being pulled away.

Just wanted to share that.

Grace and peace!
trishanna

Abbachild, how creative!  In my days of breastfeeding the "blanket thing" was the only option.   

Awww, ANJ! Ha, how cute.

I am certain you will get your chance soon enough! You will find that wonderful man and have children for yourself.

But, as for me, I can say this; you can Pump (there are some very good pumps out there) the milk and bottle feed while in public; worked just fine for me and my children.

Blessings to you!

My church believes in "family worship", the babies are in the service with their mothers and my pastor is not bothered by babies crying, "they are babies' and he does not see it as "disrupting the service".  He's actualy stated if you don't like babies and you don't like children this is not the church for you.  There are many breast feeding moms in my church (my baby is formula fed) and one sits in the first row as her husband is an elder.   It's not distracting to me, I'm focused on the WORD, I'm not concerned with a mom who is feeding her baby.