Breastfeeding Mother Embarrassed on UA Flight
Mar 12, 2015, 3:14 am
#31
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: South Yorkshire, UK
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Posts: 2,364
I get that some people don't mind seeing breastfeeding and some do, but in relative terms an airplane seat is quite a private place. There are a maximum of maybe five or six passengers who could see it if they turned their heads and looked (which no one is making them do) and a few FA's who must see worse things every day. It's not like the woman was banging a drum and yelling "see my infant feast from my womanly breast!".
The FA was probably being a bit too brusque due to having a lot to get on with on the flight. Slowing down for just a moment to ask if the mother would like a blanket maybe would have been a better way to go.
The FA was probably being a bit too brusque due to having a lot to get on with on the flight. Slowing down for just a moment to ask if the mother would like a blanket maybe would have been a better way to go.
Mar 12, 2015, 5:19 am
#32
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Australia
Programs: QFF Gold, UA 1K
Posts: 148
Let's make a deal: I'll be mindful of your right to breastfeed your baby in front of me and avert my gaze without any complaints on the occasions where you fail to be mindful of my not wanting to see it. We're all living in this world together, folks.
Mar 12, 2015, 6:41 am
#34
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 3,784
I wish you the best of luck in finding therapy to overcome your paralyzing fear/abhorrence of breasts. 
NB: I'm not even remotely liberal. I just don't believe in rigid adherence to Victorian standards of "propriety".
NB: I'm not even remotely liberal. I just don't believe in rigid adherence to Victorian standards of "propriety".
Mar 12, 2015, 7:16 am
#36
Join Date: May 2009
Location: South Park, CO
Programs: Tegridy Elite
Posts: 5,678
Indeed. Feeding from the mother is the completely natural means that evolved for any of us human beings and our hominid ancestors (the whole mammal family in fact) to consume nutrients through the early phase of life (and the sole means of doing so until the quite recent invention of formula). The fact that some humans are offended by seeing it take place is ridiculous and immature. I wish our society, in the US in particular, would get over its weird obsession with finding body parts somehow offensive to be seen.
Mar 12, 2015, 7:24 am
#37
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: SNA
Posts: 18,240
If the FA threw the blanket at the dad, I'm assuming he was on the aisle and the mother was on an inside seat. The number of passengers who might see her boob would be the dad, and maybe another passenger if a 3-3 configured plane. Plus flight attendants or others walking down the aisle. I bet FA's have seen much worse.
Mar 12, 2015, 7:37 am
#38
Original Poster
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Location: Vancouver, Canada
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Mar 12, 2015, 10:59 am
#39
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Berlin
Posts: 1,765
Mar 12, 2015, 11:19 am
#40
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: EWR
Programs: AA, Delta, NWA,HHonors, Hyatt BF
Posts: 1,762
I always get *slightly* uncomfortable when I see women breastfeed in a public setting with strange men present. I know there is nothing wrong with it, but I was raised in a way/time/place where a sense of modesty includes a woman keeping her breasts covered in a public setting, unless nudity is a given, expected, or permitted (nude beaches, Vegas shows...etc.). So I instinctively want to shield her from others or cover her up. Do I react? No. Do I want to? A little. And that is why. Can I understand why others react? Yes - and I think it is a similar reaction coupled with an inability to understand the reason for their own discomfort and not being able to keep from projecting it onto the others around them.
FA should have just let it be. But for some the drama is irresistable.
FA should have just let it be. But for some the drama is irresistable.
Mar 12, 2015, 2:25 pm
#42
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 5
Yes wait...they are "clad", albeit scantily. And I'm not trapped in a tiny tube...and...
Mar 12, 2015, 4:23 pm
#43
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: LHR/LGW
Programs: DL Gold, CO Silver
Posts: 1,036
Yeah the same FA is so busy with her safety duties that she routinely throws beverages at passengers too - Why on earth you are trying to defend such ignorant behaviour that beggers belief in any civilized environment ?
Mar 12, 2015, 6:11 pm
#44
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 1,731
A women dressed in jeans, long sleeve sweater breastfeeding a baby is unacceptable because???
Mar 12, 2015, 9:04 pm
#45
Join Date: Dec 2004
Programs: WN, DL, UA, AA, Hilton, Marriott, IHG
Posts: 1,303
I do see photos sometimes from pro-breastfeeding moms that make me, a breastfeeding mom, uncomfortable because of how much is "out there."
If the mom was feeding just like she was in the photo, this definitely is *not* one of those cases. You'd be hard pressed to be sure if that baby is eating or sleeping.
If the mom was feeding just like she was in the photo, this definitely is *not* one of those cases. You'd be hard pressed to be sure if that baby is eating or sleeping.