Bust
Breasts
Boobies
Bosom
What comes to mind when you hear these and similar words? Chances are, each word might bring up a different thought in each person. Some slang sounds very stiff, while others sound sexy. What I want to know is, how many of you pictured a woman either naked or mostly exposed in a seductive way, and how many of you imagined a modest woman feeding her hungry baby?
More times than not, the breast is viewed as a sexual object, something designed to satisfy a different type of hunger, but it has a very different and much more important purpose to many. Breastfeeding is an incredible part of motherhood to those that decide and are able to do it. There’s an incredible bond formed, and it’s an empowering feeling to know your body is able to produce everything your infant needs to survive for at least the first four to six months of their life.
Unfortunately, because the breast has become something so sexual, it leaves women feeling ashamed or embarrassed to feed their baby in public, and worse, women are being harassed for exposing even a small amount of skin in order to fill the belly of their crying baby.
It’s not acceptable and something needs to be done about it!
We live in a world where billboards are plastered with busty women in lingerie, magazines and public beaches filled with women in bathing suits that are hardly more than scraps of fabric covering tiny areas of their body, and yet, FEEDING a small child in public is frowned upon. It’s heartbreaking!
Yes, breasts are sexy and lovely and serve a wonderful sexual purpose, but it’s about time society realizes that breasts are multipurpose and so much more than something nice to look at and touch. Anywhere a woman is allowed to feed her baby a bottle she should be allowed to freely feed her baby breast milk (from her breasts) without having to worry about someone seeing her and being offended. There is nothing offensive about filling the belly of a baby, and it’s so unfair how woman are shamed for such a normal behavior.
In recent months there has been a new wave of public breastfeeding support. People are reaching out, thanking women for breastfeeding their children. This is something that truly touches and breaks my heart at the same time. In one hand it feels good to see some people viewing this activity as admirable, but in the other hand, shouldn’t it already just be a normal thing that mothers do?
You hear all the time about people being discriminated against because of their race or sexual orientation; this is no different. You don’t have to do it yourself, you don’t have to agree with it, but acceptance is important. We all have different thoughts and feelings on various controversial subjects, but like any, we all need to have a fair balance of opinion and acceptance. If you see a woman breastfeeding and you’re offended by it, don’t look at her, don’t say anything to her. Chances are she’s only trying to feed her baby, not get your attention anyway.
In honor of World Breastfeeding week, I wanted to share a little bit about my experiences.
I had my first baby at the age of 18, and it never crossed my mind to feed her formula. My body was made to produce milk that would nourish her body and help her grow, and that’s exactly what I did. If we were out and she was hungry, I hid in the car, or in changing rooms while I fed her; removing myself from the site of others. I wasn’t ashamed of feeding her, but I never wanted to cause a scene. I proudly nursed her until she was 20 months old.
Not long after turning 21, baby number two made her appearance. We struggled in the beginning with her latch and after a couple weeks, she finally got the hang of it. I was less timid about nursing her, realizing that it was my right as a mother. I was always very respectful and modest, and the likely hood of anyone even seeing my breast was extremely slim because of how well I covered up. She and I had a breastfeeding relationship for 18 months.
My third daughter came into the picture when I was 22, and didn’t fall in love with breastfeeding as much as the other two did. She was very attached to me for the first 6-8 months, and for the first time in my life, I wasn’t afraid to walk around the store while nursing my daughter. It was empowering and freeing and was 100% my right to do so. She weaned at 11 months.
I had my fair share of looks; some were of disgust, and some were of appreciation. It can feel scary and intimidating to nurse your baby in public when you’re a new mom, but the more it’s out there, the more normalized it will become. If you appreciate a nursing mother, smile at her. If it bothers you, simply look away.
Additional information about World breastfeeding week can be found here. And I hope you’ll take a look at this video. It really spells out a lot of the way breastfeeding mothers feel and is done in such a beautiful way.
I would love to hear your breastfeeding success stories, experience you’ve had (whether you were the one breastfeeding or saw someone else that was), and anything else you’d like to add.
My mom breastfed all her kids, too. With me, though, she was goign through a stressful time and wasn’t able to produce enough milk – even breastfeeding literlaly every half hour I was losing weight! So I was supplemented with formula.
I think breastfeeding is one of the most beautiful things ever.
I have no children so I didn’t comment on this when I read it, but I know the sort of looks you’re talking about and I agree that it’s wrong. I think that the way breast feeders are looked at in our society is a result of sexism (female bodied=object of desire OR mother=Madonna/whore complex), media fueled by capitalism (if you’re ashamed/afraid to breast feed you’ll pay money for formula), working conditions (it’s hard enough for a female bodied person with children to get a job without the added stress of trying to take breaks at work to pump milk for your baby surrounded by people that find the concept distasteful), and classism (Many wealthier women did not breast feed their children, they’d pay a wet nurse. There are still remnants of that thinking in this country so formula=money and breast feeding=poor. I see this a lot since there is a high Hispanic/Latino/Latina population where I live. Someone sees a Mexican-American woman breast feeding her child and they respond with “Can’t she afford milk?” or “Ugh, this is America, we don’t do that here.”)
There is nothing wrong with breast feeding. Not everyone is able or willing to do it (and that’s okay too!), but it’s a perfectly viable option for those that can and desire to do so. We shouldn’t demonize it. It’s as natural and normal as giving your kid a cup of water, and once people get that through their heads everyone will be better off.