In Defense of Public Breastfeeding

Credit: Think Progress

Warning: This is highly opinionated.

A huge issue right now in America is whether a mom has the right to breastfeed her infant in public without the need to cover up her baby or her breast and, quite frankly, the fact that this is an issue is unbelievable. We live in a country that has attempted to falsely accuse and defund Planned Parenthood because conservative citizens don’t believe that the facility should be able to perform a completely legal procedure, abortion, because they are “pro-life,” yet there’s an uproar over actually feeding the infants they insisted should be born and whether they should be fed where/when they need to be?

There are a myriad of reasons that moms should be able to breastfeed in public, but let’s try to instead address people’s reasons for why they shouldn’t be able to.

Some people think that moms should be able to bring bottles around with formula or already pumped milk so that the babies can drink from those instead of from the mom’s breast. Not only does this cause something difficult for the mothers and babies called nipple confusion, but it also greatly increases the burden of the mom every single time she steps out of the house. She has to lug around extra pounds with those bottles in her bag and make sure to put the pumped milk on ice. She’ll also have to bring her pumping equipment because the baby won’t be feeding from her for several hours and without pumping, she could develop an infection or, more likely, she will begin to leak from her breasts. Not to mention the fact that she will have to still go to the bathroom to pump. Plus she’ll also have to find a microwave wherever she is to warm up the breastmilk in the bottle. Many do not understand this long struggle and the pre-planning that go into this supposedly easy cure-all for moms who are breastfeeding.

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