Really, what is the big deal about breastfeeding in public? Good for these “lactivists” — a public display of breastfeeding is just what we need. Babies need to eat, and breastmilk is whats best for them. People need to get over whatever sqeamishness or fears they have toward a lactating breast.
“We’re all told that breast-feeding is the best, healthiest thing you can do for your child,” said Lorig Charkoudian, 32, who started the Web site www.nurseatstarbucks.com after being asked to use the bathroom to nurse at her local Starbucks. “And then we’re made to feel ashamed to do it without being locked in our homes.”
Most of the nay-sayers, it seems, are people who will never have the option to breastfeed themselves, and will never be banished to the bathroom or put behind closed doors just because their child is hungry:
“It’s nothing against breast-feeding, it’s about exposing yourself for people who don’t want to see it,” said Scotty Stroup, the owner of a restaurant in Round Rock, Tex., where a nursing mother was refused service last fall.
Ah yes… “exposing yourself,” as if breastfeeding women were walking around en masse flashing innocent onlookers, like an episode of Moms Gone Wild. The whole American fear/intense sexualization of the breast is really odd. The fact that things like breastfeeding in public or even tanning topless are regulated and debated is pretty strange. Whats the big fuss?
According to the New York Times article, the shame surrounding public breastfeeding is having profoundly negative effects:
Whether to breast-feed in public, many nursing mothers say, is not simply a matter of being respectful of another person’s sensibilities. They cite research by the Food and Drug Administration showing that the degree of embarrassment a mother feels about breast-feeding plays a bigger role in determining whether she is likely to do so than household income, length of maternity leave or employment status.
The American Academy of Pediatrics urges women to feed their babies only breast milk for the first six months, and continue breast-feeding for at least an additional six months. If its recommendations were followed, the group estimates that Americans would save $3.6 billion in annual health care costs because breast-fed babies tend to require less medical care. But while more women are breast-feeding for the first few weeks, fewer than one-third are still nursing after six months. Some doctors attribute the decline to self-consciousness and the difficulties of finding spaces where nursing seems acceptable.
The final quote of the article, though, was the best:
“Are there people who are against breast-feeding?” asked Rich Flisher, 39, a neighborhood resident passing by the nurse-in. “I do prefer it if you’re discreet, but hey, I’m behind you. Go go go.”