After his holiness, Pope Francis, baptized 33 infants, an annual tradition that is practiced in the Catholic Church, he said in his homily to mothers saying, “If they are crying for hunger, nurse them.”
Often times throughout social media and society, we bash the idea of motherhood along with mothers who breastfeed their children. Whether we have mommy issues or because we have mixed feelings about children, there is no justification for the insults being said to the women who choose to raise their children in that particular way. First and foremost, the ideal that needs to be kept in view is that without mothers or children there would be no future generation.
We must remember before judging a woman who is breastfeeding her child that the most beautiful thing a woman can do is give life. We should see breastfeeding not as something that is repulsive but as a way that a mother and child connect. While there have been baby formulas produced and other methods for feeding an infant, studies have shown that it is safer, healthier and of a lower cost to breastfeed one’s child. Throughout history, women have fed their children using the best known method and it was through breastfeeding that infants were fed and nurtured until they developed the ability to tolerate more solid foods.
Part of being a feminist is being pro-women; we cannot be pro-women and at the same time shame the way that women choose to feed their children. Not only is it childish to laugh or joke about it, it is sad and hypocritical of the ideas that are being pushed for how we treat other women.
A commenter on a website called Circle of Moms, a site where young mothers and better experienced mothers can come and share ideas, explained her view on breastfeeding and shared some of the comments that she had received from a female co-worker, one of which was, “ew, I don’t think I could have my baby suck on my nipples.”
If we are as open minded and accepting of ideas as we claim to be, why do we still have a hard time embracing the ways one chooses to feed her child? Nor does it make sense to shame women when we have cases like these that cause women to throw insults or comments against each other.
Many Americans do not share the support.Breastfeeding is viewed in the United States by many individuals as exposing oneself. But there are decency laws that state that public breastfeeding is okay, therefore there should be no argument against it questioning if it is okay or not. The point for breastfeeding is to feed a hungry child, nothing more or less.