Hostility Toward Breastfeeding In Public
Why do some people react with hostility to public breastfeeding?
I think for a number of people, I'm not quite sure what the root of it is, but they think it's disgusting. They just are so appalled and repelled by a baby going to breast. I don't know what that's all about. I think it might have started in the early days of breastfeeding when it also became commercial very quickly and it was put out there that ‘why would you do something so disgusting when we have another choice?' And I think for many of our older citizens, that still stays in there. These are so sexualized, it's all about behind closed doors, in the bedroom, and that a baby should suckle at the breast. When somebody breastfeeds a long time, the conversation pieces are amazing that we participate in, when we actually know that breastfeeding in many cultures goes up -- if a baby was allowed to self-wean, parents are so shocked when we tell them this in a breastfeeding class, they would actually breastfeed between 3 and 4 years. When I was breastfeeding my first child, at 6 weeks people were saying ‘How long are you going to do that?' And I finally got great answers and I learned to say things like, ‘Gee, you know, I think I'm going to wean him before he goes to college!' And I did. And people would say other things about parenting that were just so wrong, like, ‘don't buy a rocking chair.' Why wouldn't I buy a rocking chair? Because if you rock him, you'll always have to! Well, he doesn't even live at home anymore. Just those kinds of statements, that kids will use us. So I think there is some of that. I think there is a psychological thing about not letting kids be dependent and use us, it all plays into that breastfeeding issue. But even young people, some of them have trouble. Breasts are for sexuality and not for feeding. But I think it's coming. Since I've been a breastfeeding consultant these last many years, I see a change. Now, I do live in California, and I think we have a society that has been breastfeeding -- the edges of the country breastfeed more. So I think it's moving though. I think it's moving.
