Do you breastfeed in public? Do you cover up whilst breastfeeding in public? What does it say about our society that women feel the need to cover up when breastfeeding? It’s National Breastfeeding Week and two of the aims of the awareness week are to
“increase social acceptance of breastfeeding and promote support for breastfeeding”.
Firstly we want to make it clear that at Mama Tea we support all new mums and the choices they make whether they breastfeed or not, and if a woman wants to cover up to feel comfortable breastfeeding her baby in public then she should be supported in her choice, but what we are questioning here is what it says about the social acceptance of breastfeeding in our society when women feel the need to cover up.
Breastfeeding is a natural act of feeding your baby so why should the sight of them feeding be a source of shame or discomfort for a woman. The rise in the number of breastfeeding cover ups available (some of them vast tent/cape like things) on the face of it encourages public breastfeeding but is it really helping social acceptance if we’re hiding it away as if we’re ashamed to be doing it.
Secondly babies are human beings and need eye contact, why hide your baby away just because it is feeding. As adults we observe social norms when eating in public but one of those norms is not completely hiding ourselves away from public view, why should this be a social norm for your baby whilst feeding.
Finally we all learn by example, if women never see other women breastfeeding then we never get the chance to learn, for example seeing an alternative breastfeeding position to the one you use.
There is nothing shameful about breastfeeding so please don’t let society make you think you should cover up and hide away, the more breastfeeding we see in public the more accepting society will become.
