Breastfeeding – A Woman’s Right, Not A Shame
If you talk to a breastfeeding mother, you’ll notice emotions such as fear and humiliation, guilt and blame – while she talks about feeding her child in public. It’s strange that we’re living in a 21st century and women still face such issues.
A recent incident that happened around me, stuck in my mind. Despite being a mom myself for more than 5 years now, I have not been able to understand the stigma around breastfeeding.
Coming to the episode, I was at a beach with my sister-in-law and her 1 year old baby. We just reached the beach and her baby boy started crying intensely due to hunger. In fact, we were all hungry and the food that was being served there was not very apt for the young one, so my sis-in-law decided to breastfeed him. There were two women sitting besides us who did not stop staring at us in a very offensive way, and the reason was very clear. I just couldn’t understand that if we were hungry and we could eat whatever we wanted to, why the poor little soul couldn’t? What was wrong with that?
Our society norms are defined in support of a child and a mother’s needs, or otherwise? Just for one time, in return, we started staring them back even more acutely. But no, that was not funny.
The pressure to breastfeed is real but here are 4 reasons why you need to change the conversation around breastfeeding and let go off the stigma.
1. Her Body, Her Rights
Breasts are a women’s body part. It’s no one else’s business to define what they should or should not do with them especially, when it comes to feeding their little ones. Period!
2. Nature’s Way Of Empowerment
Ability to breastfeed a child is nature’s way of empowering women, and no society has the right to take that away from almost half of our world’s population. Telling women that they should not breastfeed their child, in itself, is telling them to go away from their natural abilities.
3. Breasts Are Not Objects
We need to stop objectifying a woman’s body! Yes, we have heard that infinite times but it’s so deep rooted in our thought process that we don’t realise it happening. Objectification of women’s bodies is so ingrained that a MOM feels embarrassed while feeding her own hungry baby. Breasts are way beyond that, they have their own functionality significance besides being just toys; our dear men and also, women!
4. Confining Women Means Confining Generations
Yes, that’s true, women make babies, societies and in the long run generations. When we limit women and their thought process, it carries an impact on how they treat their homes and kids. The same kids who will make the next generation with that limited thought process and boundaries. It would be a different world if these unnecessary limitations are lifted up; a free, more breathable world.
Unfortunately, our modern world has missed tackling the issue of mom shaming, but now it’s high time to untie the bounding knots. Hanging in by this thought, women’s choices should and must be respected.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: This article is written by Kanika Arya, our Guest Writer. Kanika Arya has been working in the field of content, advertising and marketing for 5 years. She is also a homemaker and stay-at-home-mom. She is an excellent content curator and poet.
