Am I the only person confused about why we need people to advocate and protect mothers who are doing the natural thing and breastfeed their babies in public. I’m really trying to understand the logic behind making a mother feel embarrassed about feeding her child! We make claims about being family oriented and we promote the need for healthy families. However it seems that when it comes down to the action…actually having healthy families, we make it damn near impossible on parents!
We provide food stamps and the WIC program for families that are struggling, which I think is great and helps a lot of people. But why can’t these families have access to organic, healthy foods? Why are most poor families living off of processed food? Why is the average American living off processed and unhealthy food? Why aren’t we paying our farmer’s properly and making sodas a $1? We do put shame on breast-feeding? Why would you ask a mother who has the ability and has chosen to feed their child healthy natural breast milk, to feed their baby in a dirty bathroom? Last time I checked, there weren’t any state representatives eating their burgers in a public bathroom stall. Why does it make people uncomfortable?
Now I use to cover my son because he was nosey and easily distracted if people were around. Don’t get me wrong, he was an eater. But if we were at the park and kids were playing and making noise, he would try to hold his head up instead of focusing on the task at hand. I had to focus him early! LOL! So I don’t have a problem placing a blanket over my baby’s head while he nurses, but other mothers do. I personally think it’s a personal preference, to blanket or not blanket. And if you don’t want to put a blanket over your baby’s head for whatever reason, you shouldn’t have to! And you certainly SHOULD NOT have to go into a bathroom or in some dark corner away from people. Now my kid ate fast and easy. Some mothers don’t have that. There is no standard for feeding any kid really. They are human beings, not one kid is exactly the same. So there could be times when it may take 25-30 minutes to get your baby to nurse. Why would you want to be sent off in shame somewhere that is dark or dirty or smelly to feed your child.
You want mothers to work to help with the economy but you don’t make it easy to do so with a family. You want families to build and grow healthy, but you bark and make fun of mother’s doing the natural thing they are supposed to do. I’m completely confused as to what we are trying to do in this country with creating The American Dream and building the healthy family structure. Here’s what I believe. I believe that it should be easy for mother’s to work and contribute to society as well as their home, and we shouldn’t make it difficult to do so. I believe if a woman chooses to breastfeed her baby on park bench in the sun, she should. And that we should truly whole heartedly encourage mothers who can breastfeed to do so. Not tell them to do so and make it hard! And I believe EVERYONE should have access to healthy, natural organic produce and products to maintain a healthy family…not just those who can afford Whole Foods. There was organic living before the supermarket take over! There are certain things that we shouldn’t have to advocate for things that citizens should naturally have in a free democratic western society.
