Valley Oak
10-28-2014, 09:58 AM
The Huffington Post (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/), 9.26.2013
If You Don't Support Breastfeeding in Public, You Don't Support Breastfeeding (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/katharine-mckinney/breastfeeding-in-public_b_2814004.html)
Most people, if you ask them, will say they support breastfeeding, that they believe that it's the best nutrition for babies, natural and good.
Ask the same people about breastfeeding in public, however, and the responses shift. Some people will be totally on board with the idea, and other people will balk.
To the balkers, I say this. It's not going to make me popular, but it's a statement I have come to believe is true through nine years of lactation, even longer study of lactation, and the experience of thousands of other mothers.
If you don't support breastfeeding in public, you don't support breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding whenever, wherever a child is hungry is an integral component of breastfeeding success. To take that away is to inhibit mothers who only want to do right by their child. We don't put the same constraints on mothers who bottle feed. To dictate a separate set of rules for a nursing mother and child is discriminatory.
Here are some of the examples people give for why women should not nurse in public.
"I don't pee or masturbate in public, so why should a woman breastfeed?"
This supposes the act of feeding a child is private, or worse, sexual or dirty. But nobody else eats a hamburger under a blanket. We don't ostracize bottle-fed children to another room. Urinating or committing sex acts are considered private, but in no other context but breastfeeding is eating considered something that cannot be viewed.
"Just go in another room. Stay home. Nobody wants to see that."
Mothering is already an isolating, exhausting business and to tell a woman that for several hours a day she has to be sequestered is dehumanizing...
To read remaining article, click this link. (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/katharine-mckinney/breastfeeding-in-public_b_2814004.html)
If You Don't Support Breastfeeding in Public, You Don't Support Breastfeeding (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/katharine-mckinney/breastfeeding-in-public_b_2814004.html)
Most people, if you ask them, will say they support breastfeeding, that they believe that it's the best nutrition for babies, natural and good.
Ask the same people about breastfeeding in public, however, and the responses shift. Some people will be totally on board with the idea, and other people will balk.
To the balkers, I say this. It's not going to make me popular, but it's a statement I have come to believe is true through nine years of lactation, even longer study of lactation, and the experience of thousands of other mothers.
If you don't support breastfeeding in public, you don't support breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding whenever, wherever a child is hungry is an integral component of breastfeeding success. To take that away is to inhibit mothers who only want to do right by their child. We don't put the same constraints on mothers who bottle feed. To dictate a separate set of rules for a nursing mother and child is discriminatory.
Here are some of the examples people give for why women should not nurse in public.
"I don't pee or masturbate in public, so why should a woman breastfeed?"
This supposes the act of feeding a child is private, or worse, sexual or dirty. But nobody else eats a hamburger under a blanket. We don't ostracize bottle-fed children to another room. Urinating or committing sex acts are considered private, but in no other context but breastfeeding is eating considered something that cannot be viewed.
"Just go in another room. Stay home. Nobody wants to see that."
Mothering is already an isolating, exhausting business and to tell a woman that for several hours a day she has to be sequestered is dehumanizing...
To read remaining article, click this link. (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/katharine-mckinney/breastfeeding-in-public_b_2814004.html)