Although breastfeeding is a natural and important function, there are a lot of speculations on mothers nursing their babies in public. As far as the considering the law, in many countries breastfeeding is considered common in public and not been regarded as an issue, but there are countries that forbids women from exposing their breasts in public even for the purpose of breastfeeding their babies.
Socially even though the law allows mothers to nurse their babies in public, many women are reluctant to do it in public because of objections by public, harassment and even negative comments. It is also a fact that many mothers refrain from doing it in public as it draws negative attention, but many mothers have raised their voice against it, by saying that if the law permits, how anyone can stop them.
The Truth of Social Acceptance of Breastfeeding in Public
It has been a taboo topic for no logical reasons for quite a long time now. This is basically because of the reasons that mothers around the world have to undergo shaming for a natural and simple task like nursing her baby.
Moreover, have you ever though that in one of the safe public places like a mall, a mother had to go through some most bitter experiences for nursing her baby. In one of the most recent incidence, a mother in Kolkata had to go through some nightmares on requesting to provide ladies with clean and hygienic areas to breastfeed from the popular and famous, South City mall.
The 29 year old mother narrates her episode reported the matter of the mall’s Facebook page mentioning that she had to around the entire mall with her seven month old daughter to hunt for a place to nurse her. Utterly to her disguise, when she asked for help from the mall staffs, she was advised the public toilet.
In another episode of a similar kind, a Malayalam Magazine, Grihalakshmi, featured a woman breastfeeding on their cover in the March issue, which sparked outrages and went viral. Many social media buffs took this cover page image to initiate conversations about women’s rights to breastfeed in public.
The Headline of Grihalkshmi’s cover page says: “Mothers tell Kerala, “please don’t stare, we need to breastfeed”. With this message the magazine clearly wanted to send out message to all who frown on seeing women with their bare breasts nursing their babies.
Know what many intellectuals have to say on the issue
Many intellects believe that public breastfeeding exposes the private part of the mother’s body in the vicinity. This is considered offensive to many and especially for other children present there. There are numerous other ways of feeding a baby when in a public place. Many believe that it is always termed as a normal and natural function and there is no harm in doing it in public, but sex and defecation are also natural, so do they also start them doing in public?
While it is true that we pretend that we all are mature and intelligent, but in reality it will always encourage us that we will still keep on doing something that is really stupid. And also, with a fine line between what’s wrong and what’s right, people will still keep on pushing the line way further than just breastfeeding.