You're focusing on the wrong person in the situation, and maybe that's part of the problem. It's not about the mother performing a bodily function; it's about f

You're focusing on the wrong person in the situation, and maybe that's part of the problem. It's not about the mother performing a bodily function; it's about feeding a very dependent and undisciplined proto-human. Neither their minds nor their metabolisms understand waiting. As for the mothers in question...the sensibilities of strangers is such an inconsequential concern compared to the well-being of one's child that you might as well ask why she thinks it's okay to drink a glass of water without any consideration for the fate of the millions of living organisms within. When our baby cries, my wife goes into some kind of panic-driven berserker state until he's mollified. I barely matter to her at that point. So that's the why. As to the where...you can't simply go into house arrest when you have a baby that you have to feed every 2-3 hours. In my opinion, a lot of people eat far more obscenely than any combination of baby+breast, but open-mouth chewers are allowed to perform their horrible bodily functions in full view of the innocent public even though they could be considerate and eat in the privacy of their homes. Imagine you're a mother (assuming you aren't). Why should you be treated like a second class citizen when you're literally creating the next generation of people from the substance of your own body? No mother I know feels that what she's doing is obscene or anything less than wonderful, and I personally doubt the mental health of anybody who does.