Just something I remembered, when my son was first born I was really struggling with breastfeeding. He wasn't latching well, and I was a first-time mom. Initially I tried nursing in the mother's room during meetings, but we didn't have a pa system in our ward so I ended up missing every meeting message while I sat in the damn mother's room. So I bought a cover up and discreetly began nursing during meetings in the chapel.

After two Sundays the RS pres came up and asked me if I was nursing under the cover during meetings. I told her I was, and she then proceeded to chastise me about my lack of modesty. My argument to her was "if you had to ASK me if I was nursing in the first place, then clearly I'm doing a pretty good job of covering up, right?" She walked off in a huff, but not without tattling to the bish. Who of course backed her up, even though he didn't even KNOW I was doing it until she said something.

Between this incident and all the issues I was having nursing, it was too much. I ended up quitting and doing formula instead. A few months later we moved to a tiny branch, where women nursed in the chapel all the time. That's when I realized that different wards had different rules based on whatever person was running things.

I am curious now thinking back on it, was this ever an issue in any of your wards? I can understand people being uncomfortable if i was just whipping my chest out, but I was so covered up that it shouldn't have bothered anyone.

Yes. But most of the time, I nursed outside the Sacrament Meeting as my babies were such noisy eaters! :-) Most of the church buildings had a rocking chair and a "Nursing room" for mothers to take care of their babies. Nursing seems to go in and out of favor with mothers.

Never nursed in the chapel, but didn't hesitate to do it during RS. I was not great at it so I was more comfy in the mother's lounge.

Fing Busy-Bodies!

RS Pres ... MUST HAVE BEEN OUT OF THINGS TO RAG PEOPLE ABOUT!

In no ward I was in or visited did I ever see a nursing-mom-&-baby anywhere other than in the “mothers’ room.”

Our whole culture has a hang-up about this. Once it finally gets over it, wait another century and the LDS church may start allowing discreet nursing in its meetings.

I haven't been for decades but there were people who did it years ago. They were covered and discrete. I don't think anyone complained.

I grew up in a pseudo-liberal ward, & I don't remember a time when mothers weren't nursing their babies during meetings. We even had an enclosed nursing balcony & a nursing room, both with PA systems.

You can't qualify being a human in the LDS church. Human things have to be hidden.

I don't remember any nursing going on in church - but that was many years ago.

At one of the schools I worked at, we had a back-to-school faculty meeting (a few days before school started). One of the teachers had a newborn, and nursed it while sitting on the front row. That was a loud, slurping baby, and everyone was aware of it. The principal was visibly distracted during the meeting.

The mothers room in our building was just off the womens restroom, so it smelled bad. It had no heat, a raggedy old dirty chair, and no sound system.

I wasn't a nursing mother while in that ward, but I told the bishop that I thought it was disgusting that the mothers room was a cold filthy afterthought, and an insult to mothers. He had 6 kids and his wife was currently nursing. After that they bought some new chairs and a heater. Big deal.

If they really value women the way they say they do, they should put the bishop in the mothers room and let the women have the warm roomy well lit, wired for sound bishops office.

I was a very private nursing mom so I wouldn't have done it in SM or RS...and I can't remember if any woman did while we were still going to church either, so if they had they covered it up well. A family member of mine on the other hand, plopped out her boob for the world to see every time one if her babies cried, so I'm sure her ward got an eye full...and not a good one at that. :)

nobody cared if you nursed in RS. It was like you were among supportive girlfriends, so nobody got upset about it. And nobody would dream of snitching to the bishop. That kind of female-bonding was one of the best parts of Mo-ism, I thought.

My aunt once was nursing her baby and decided to carry the drinking baby up to the podium to bear her testimony. The blanket covered her chest, but the blanket kept slipping, so with every word she said, we all just cringed, hoping we didn't see anything...

It's one thing to see a woman's breast while she's discreetly nursing, unlatching the baby, putting it away, etc. It's quite another to have a woman standing before the entire cultural hall with bright lights shining on her.