The birth of a child is one of the most beautiful and heartwarming moments in a mother’s life. From that moment on, that mother has a completely different outlook on life. Immediately after birth a mother’s instinct to keep their baby healthy, happy, and safe kicks in. Every mother wants the best for their child. Most new mothers do endless amounts of research while pregnant, searching everything from the style of the way they want to give birth to the best diets and everything in between. One of the most difficult choices when becoming a mother is the way they chose to nourish their child. Toggling between formula and breastfeeding, although the most nutritional and beneficial way to feed a newborn is to breastfeed. A lot of women are discouraged out of naturally nursing their young one, they receive so much discrimination for breastfeeding in public that they decide to stop altogether. This discrimination has a lot to do with the way society portrays the woman’s anatomy.
Nursing most commonly known as breastfeeding is when a mother feeds her child through her breast. Nursing has endless benefits, not only for the newborn baby but also for the mother as well. When a baby is, breast fed, they are provided a nearly perfect mixture of vitamins, protein and fat, which is needed for baby to grow healthy. Breast milk is easier for them to digest than formula and contains antibodies that are needed to fight viruses and bacteria. When a baby is solely breastfed for the first 6months of their lives they have fewer trips to the doctor’s office, ear infections, respiratory illnesses, and diarrhea. Mommy and baby also get the extra skin to skin bonding growing their bond strong. When a woman nurses it burns calories, which is a plus when trying to shed the baby weight. These new mothers have risks of ovarian and breast cancer. While a woman nurses her child the hormone oxytocin is released. This hormone aids the uterus return to its original pre-pregnancy size and reduces uterine bleeding after giving birth. Not to mention it’s a lot easier than trying to measure formula half-awake then trying to warm to the perfect temperature during night feedings. A major benefit is that there is no need to purchase sterilized nipples and bottles, saving parents a few dollars. Studies have shown that “exclusive breast-feeding is strongly associated with reductions in the risk of respiratory and diarrhea morbidities during the first 6 months of life among children born to HIV-infected women.” Breast milk is also great for home remedies for mothers who would rather go the holistic way when caring for her child. Breast milk can cure pink eye, diaper rash, and eczema. It can also be used as a soother for your throat, as an ointment for stings, rashes, ear treatments and can be cooked with. Not only does breastfeeding have many health benefits but it is very cost efficient. Formula is about $0.67 an ounce, a baby will eat about 25 ounces a day which is 9,125 oz a year. A breastfeeding mother will save around $6,113.75 a year. Breastfeeding is a hard task to tackle, in the beginning it hurts and trying to get baby to latch to the breast is very stressful and enough to make some mothers stop and switch to formula. Making sure their milk is coming in is enough to drive you mad and has its hand in discouraging women out of nursing their children. The good in nursing out ways the bad. Despite how healthy it is for both mother and baby.
One of the biggest conflicts that women encounter is over showing their breast when breastfeeding in public. A woman’s breast is plastered everywhere from being in movies, magazines and on television. when a child is put to the breast to nurse them, everything about the mother’s breast becomes offensive and those mothers are made to feel embarrassed. The lack recognition of the importance of mothers to nurse their babies leads to a bigger problem in the society, people think breastfeeding in public is a weird behavior and even worse, some people discriminate it. Despites the necessity of mothers to breastfeed their babies, they should have privileges when they are nursing their babies at any place they are, and everyone should support it. A new mother has gone through so many changes mentally and physically and where she’s feeding her child should not be a factor. There is absolutely nothing sexual about a mother breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is one of the most challenging tasks mom has done in her journey of motherhood. It is very appalling that society has tried to discourage something that is so healthy and natural. Breastfeeding creates an amazing bond between a mother and her child and the nutritional benefits are major for an infant’s development. People will argue that breastfeeding in public is not appropriate and should only be done behind closed doors. Then there are others that will argue that a breastfeeding mother should be able to breastfeed where ever her child needs to eat. Since everyone is allowed to have their own opinion, we can no longer ignore the breastfeeding controversy surrounding the feeding of a baby. Society needs to support and respect a woman that chooses to breastfeed her baby in public.
When a woman is out to eat, shopping, or simply walking through the park, she still receives many stares, rude comments, and random strangers advising her to cover up, go to a secluded area and how inappropriate it is to essentially “feed her child”. Can you imagine being told to eat under a cover in eighty-degree weather? Or to eat in the bathroom to make someone else feel comfortable? Societies hand in discouraging a mother from doing what her body is naturally made to once she gives birth is constantly using a woman’s anatomy to sale products or use them as sex props in movies or on television. Very rarely do you see a woman’s body portrayed doing what it was created to do. A woman in a bikini or with mostly nothing on has been used countless times for ads that has nothing to do with the woman’s body i.e. Budweiser beer and Men’s fragrances.
We can see, mothers have the necessity of breastfeeding in public, but they find it impossible without taking the attention from others. As a result, mothers are “force” to not breastfeed their babies in the natural way, as a result, they need to do it with a bottle. As more and more mothers feel the inconvenient on breastfeeding in public, they try to avoid it. On the other hand, such companies take advantage of it and the consequence of it is less mothers feel comfortable when they are breastfeeding in public and people discriminate it. It makes people think feeding babies in a more “decent” way is more appropriate in public.
The government plays an essential role on the support of breastfeeding, without the encouragement and the policy priority of it, the country won’t have that huge progress on breastfeeding rates. Living in a country like this makes mother feel comfortable and privilege when they are nursing a baby in public. In 2018 it was announced that it was “finally” legal to breastfeed in public in all fifty states. I find it bizarre that it that a mother feeding her child naturally caused so much of an uproar that it needed to be passed as legal. If a woman decides to breastfeed, she should be able to do so without strangers shouting at her or giving dirty looks. With the percentage of breastfeeding new mothers rising, society will have no choice but to accept it. Though it will not change the way a company uses the woman’s anatomy for a prop. I believe that if people took the time to educate themselves before judging it would be a lot easier for a woman to continue nursing, at least for the recommended 6months.
In addition, one way to support this movement is by publishing more educational advertisement about the benefits of breastfeeding, making it a normal behavior in public. The reason why The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breastfeeding is the highly benefits of it for both the child and the mother. However, many mothers in the United States can’t maintain breastfeeding as long as they would like. The limitation they have in a public space is one of the factors of their discontinuity breastfeeding.