Category Archives: Breastfeeding

Introducing children to Breastfeeding

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I recently got into an argument with a friend over whether or not children should be introduced to breastfeeding, mainly addressing little girls. My god-daughter was not breastfed due to the fact that her mother was not producing milk. As a result, her mother never speaks about breast feeding. I just erased a sentance stating that the fact that she was never breastfed was niether here nor there, but I just realized thats a crucial part to the story.

When my god-daughter grows up and asks about her childhood, her mother will never tell her a story regarding her breastfeeding her beautiful baby. Therefore, the act of breastfeeding will not be a conversation had until school brings it up (if they ever do), its seen via person or TV, or until she is preparing to have a child of her own. Due to this reason I decided to teach Elizabeth about breastfeeding using her baby doll as an example. She now knows the biological purpose of breasts and occaisionally feeds her baby doll via imaginary breast milk.

When my dear friend found out about this, she went crazy! She said I was confusing Elizabeth, and that it was an unnecessary lesson. I counterargued that confusion only occurs when things like this aren’t discussed in a open setting within the family.

Public Breastfeeding; Should It, Could It, Would It?

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SNL News Skit

As of late, the topic of public breastfeeding has been debated by the media. This is primarily due to the recent posts on instagram by models Gisele Bundchen (http://instagram.com/p/hvz4wzntH_/) and Nicole Ashley (http://instagram.com/p/kcqcGpKR8k/) . Both are working, breastfeeding, models who decided to make their acts of breastfeeding public via instagram. Both received strong backlash. Now, there are a few things I would like to address while speaking on this topic. I will try my very best to remain unbiased and unopinionated.

Now that I got that little disclaimer out the way, I’ll first speak about Gisele’s now infamous photo. The media roared when the post was made on instagram; comments both praising and scolding the mother poured into her comment section. Conversation then blew up, and overshadowed all other backlash, when people started to claim that the photo lacked realism. This factor is what caused me to raise my eyebrow, do we want breastfeeding to be glamorized? I always believed that acts that are glamorize are acts that the public, especially our youth, will attempt to repeat. This leads me to Nicole’s post; majority of her negative comments were solely scolding her. Mind you, her photo is much more realistic in regards to the average woman (those without glam squads). This made me ask the million dollar question, what is the real issue here? Many say it’s race, others say it’s the circumstance, and some say its the way the photo was taken. Nicole Ashley is of color, the photo was taken with a low resolution camera, she is dressed in an average maxi dress, and she claims to be on the go while breastfeeding her son. What is the variable that makes people’s remarks and opinions so different in comparison to Gisele?

Many are arguing that Nicole’s picture is necessary and needed for African Americans to see. This opinion is based on a study produced by the CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5911a2.htm#tab1) that, in conclusion, states that the American average of women who attempt breastfeeding is 73.4 percent. Black Americans, however, were proven to attempt breastfeeding at the dramatically decreased percentage of 54.4 percent. The alleged cause for the lack of attempted breastfeeding amongst Black Americans is due to the failure of these women seeing mothers that look like them breastfeeding. This then leads me to ask, should women breastfeed publicly? If they do, could breasts be seen as body parts with meaningful purposes, rather than sexual aspects of women? Say public breastfeeding becomes an everyday norm, should women cover themselves?Should women do such an intimate act in public? Would the act cause damage to a youthful audience?