I know that I've come into this late, but I have read through all of the posts, so I know how crazy this thread has gotten. I just thought I'd put in my two cents. I'm not going to quote all of the posts I'm replying to because that would just get ridiculous.
Firstly, I do agree with breast-feeding in public only if the mother is discrete about it. I know some have said that the breast virtually disappears behind the baby's head and that you can't see any nipple action, but as someone who has breast-fed, I know that it doesn't work that way.
For some (including me) breastfeeding is something that you really have to work on to get used to and its very difficult to latch correctly. When you don't latch correctly it is very painful for the mother and frustrating for the child because they won't get enough milk.
So in order to learn to get the correct latch you have to have lots of room
(so breastfeeding in a public toilet would be near impossible unless the mother was already practiced), be in a good position with pillows propping you up and such or in a chair with armrests, and you have to be able to see your breast and your baby's mouth. You can't be covered up with a blanket or anything. I couldn't get coordinated enough to breastfeed without seeing what I was doing for several weeks.
Because of this, I only breastfed at home. When I was out, or if immature relatives were around and made a fuss, I took bottles of pumped breast milk and my baby ate that.Some women don't want to do this because of the idea that sucking from the nipple of a bottle and sucking the mother's nipple requires different techniques (a baby has to work less to eat from a bottle) and the baby might get confused and then refuse the breast. This eventually happened to me. This was very frustrating for my baby and myself.
The problem with this is that you cannot produce breast milk by pumping alone if you are not also breastfeeding. So my milk dried up and my daughter had to go on formula. You may say that there is nothing wrong with bottle feeding a baby and they get enough nutrients that way, and I agree. However, in order to exclusively bottle feed our daughter, it costs us over $150 a month in formula alone. That really adds up, and I can see a mother being okay with offending a few people to save that much money every month.
So really, you have to think of the big picture. Is seeing a woman breast-feeding a baby off-putting in certain situations? Yes. Especially in nice restaurants. But in the long-run is it worth the frustration and financial difficulties to force a woman to bottle feed in public? No.
EDIT: And as an added note about a woman breast-feeding in a public toilet or running out of a meeting and returning after breastfeeding, or even breastfeeding in a traffic jam, in average, breastfeeding a baby takes at least 20 minutes, sometimes up to 45 minutes. By that time your food is cold and everyone is ready to leave without you. This is from personal experience as well as research.
http://info.k4health.org/inforeports...ng/index.shtml