I am always surprised that breast-feeding is ever an issue anymore?
Although many men and women feel somewhat emancipated from the stereotypical gender expectations of prior decades. it appears that a holdover from our mother’s/ or grandmother’s time still hangs on. It all has to do with breast-feeding. Should a mother breastfeed and where and when? Ask anyone and they will give you their — often stern — opinion on the subject. I have heard all kinds of half truths and truths. Some women claim not to breast-feed because they are ‘busy’ or because it will hurt their figure or because it’s old fashioned. None of these ‘reasons’ really work for me. It should be all about what’s best for the baby…. or am I old fashioned?
Neither I or my wife were breast-feed, we had ‘modern mothers’ who got sucked in ( pun intended) to believing that ‘formula’ was better and easier. Easier it may have been, but I was returned to the hospital for rejecting formula, and I wear glasses today ( which — I believe — is due to a particular vitamin deficiency in the early formulas). Needless to say, my wife and I agreed that breast feeding was the way to go… much to the annoyance of some family members and friends. Not surprisingly, our adult children seem to be doing fine. However, the ‘modern’ folks are still out there!
One magazine cover had over 700 protests because it showed -discretely — a woman breast-feeding her child ( I am assuming her child). The strange thing is that this was a BABY magazine! One woman thought that breast feeding was gross… I can’t help but wonder what other messy stuff repells her. Can’t take her to a football game.
The above linked CNN article contained the following exerpt:
“Most states now have laws guaranteeing the right to breast-feed where one chooses, and when a store or restaurant employee denies a woman that right, it has often resulted in public protests known as “nurse-ins”: at a Starbucks in Miami, Florida, at Victoria’s Secret stores in Racine, Wisconsin, and Boston, Massachusetts, and, last year, outside ABC headquarters in New York, when Barbara Walters made comments on “The View” seen by some women to denigrate breast-feeding in public.”
Funny, Barbara Waa Waa doesn’t look as nice a person to me anymore. As an alternative, there are plenty of BLOGS supporting breast-feeding.
Certainly, there are some who breast-feed, but feel too awkward to do so in public. All the advice I can give is… Get over it. Who’s the priority here, YOU or your child? It may take a little courage… but it’s all about what your baby needs and when!
Roger Freberg