Can you help this iVillager with another sticky probem?
My husband won’t let me breastfeed in public. We have three children, the youngest is three months. And lately, when we’ve been going out, he’s become so uncomfortable about me breastfeeding that he has flatly asked me not to do it.
I happily breastfed my first two children in public whenever they were hungry. It didn’t matter where I was. Baby hungry = breastfeed. I refused to give a second thought to where I was or who may not be comfortable with my decision to nourish my child.
I don’t flaunt it. I just sit down and let them latch on. It’s discreet.
My sister has bought me a product called a Peak-a-Boob which covers you up but has a gap for gazing down on your child, but I always have trouble latching him on under it. When my husband is out with me I often throw a muslin wrap over us just to shut him up. Sometimes he’ll stand behind me like a nightclub bouncer, blocking what he sees as men making deliberate efforts to perve. I’ll go out of my way to assure him that it’s his imagination but he still hates it.
I’m usually a passionate defender of public breastfeeding but it’s becoming not worth the drama.
Does her husband have a right to be uncomfortable about her breastfeeding in public or is he being unreasonable?