They are kidding right ? Apparently, aswell as finding that the majority of respondents have no idea about the benefits of breastfeeding, according to a survey conducted by the Queensland University of Technology :
More than 50 per cent of women believed it would be uncomfortable to breastfeed in public, and a majority of men and women did not want their child to be breastfed in public for fear of embarrassment.
Why - why should breastfeeding be embarrassing ? And are we talking its embarrassing for the women who is feeding or for the people around who may be able to see her ? It just exasperates me that these people of my generation, aged 19 - 29, who if they dont already have kids may be having them sometimes in the near future..... it just frusturates me that they would respond that way.
Breastfeeding is literally the most natural thing in the world - a womans body is genetically engineered for it. Nature intended for a woman to breastfeed, and for a baby to get the best nutritional benefit from being fed this way, so why is somehing so natural and so good for us considered " embarrassing " ? I can understand perhaps if you were an overly shy woman you might feel a little strange getting your breasts out in public, or a modest bystander may blush a little seeing a woman with a breast out. But lets face it - we're not talking " Girls Gone Wild " exhibitionism here: we're talking a display of flesh so slight you may aswell not see anything at all. It takes maybe 20 seconds to slip your shirt strap and bra down and once thats done the babies head is in the way of anything titillating.
So maybe i can understand how breastfeeding could be embarrassing for a mother ( i still fail to see how its embarrassing so much for bystanders ). What i cant not, and will not ever, be able to wrap my head around is how it can possible be found offensive ( NOTE: offensive is never mentioned in the article; its just a bug bear of mine ). I was listening to talk back radio the other night - at 4am whilst breastfeeding - and some old woman had called in to say that she finds it offensive to see women breastfeeding in public. Its indecent, she said. Seriously, i wanted to either call the radio station and berate this lady or find the old bird and give a good hard bitch slap. How can it possibly be offensive to feed a child the best way possible? Nobody is at the mall just flopping their boobs out for all and sundry to see; none of us breastfeeding ladies is doing it for some pervy, kinky reason, or see how many people we can upset by flashing a bit of nipple as we lift the baby to our breast. Nope, breastfeeding is simply about nutrition and bonding with your child, i dont know how you can find anything offensive about that.
Its people with the same attitude as crazy radio lady that make it embarrassing for some women to feed their children in public. So what do you guys think - embarrassing ? Offensive? Or just plain natural?
