Breastfeeding in Germany :)

Breastfeeding in public:

Breastfeeding in public in Germany has been much more laid back than I experienced in the states. It may have been the area I was living but breastfeeding in public was not exactly embraced. Here you can breastfeed pretty much anywhere without being stared at or feeling insecure. My son is a little older now (almost 11 months) so I don't have to feed him nearly as much as I used to. It would have been wonderful with a younger baby to just feed the whenever without worrying. In the states I spent a lot of time hiding in the car feeding the baby while my friends and family ate dinner at a restaurant or shopped, here that has never been an issue. 

Breastfeeding support: 

I have found many breastfeeding support groups while living here. Facebook is a great place to start. My favorite (that I've found) is a group called mom2mom. mom2mom is a large group that has many smaller "chapters".  My areas has a Facebook group and holds weekly meetings. I highly recommend checking for groups in your area. 

***There is also great support for cloth diapering in the area which I will later discuss in a separate post. There are many cloth diapering mommies here in the KMC, I never considered it myself until arriving here and am now SO happy I gave it a chance.

Breast Pumps:

I've included this topic because of a recent negative experience. After having surgery I was forced to pump for a few days while on medication. During this time my Medela Pump in Style Advanced, suddenly stopped working. Apparently these are not meant to be used overseas, even with a transformer. You must buy a separate 220V adapter that can be found online ( I found mine on ebay). I was sure my pump was ruined so my husband and I went to the Ramstein BX and bought a new one, for almost $300. Upon arriving home, and after opening the seal I found that my old one still worked, it was only the adapter that was ruined. So now I have two, but lesson learned. I have now heard horror stories of pumps actually breaking. Be safe and buy the adapter (mine was around $20).