Okay, so here’s the thing. I love breastfeeding and I love breastfeeding mamas and I am all for public breastfeeding and breastfeeding support and I think that INTERNATIONAL BREASTFEEDING AWARENESS MONTH is wonderful. That said, I think that there are a lot of mamas out there who feel slighted by this because, let's be honest, there is a LOT of shaming when it comes to how we nourish our babies and there needn’t be because we’re all doing our thing.
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And so starting today, AUGUST 14TH, 2014, I am instating International SUPPORT ALL MOTHERS WHO THOUGHTFULLY NOURISH THEIR BABIES WEEK. And it includes all breastfeeding mothers AND all bottle-feeding mothers. It includes parents of adoptive children and those (like me) who have had breast reduction surgery that make it nearly impossible or incredibly difficult to breastfeed. It includes survivors of breast cancer, women who attempted to nurse but could not, women who didn’t attempt to nurse for whatever reason, women who pump in an office, women who supplement with formula from time to time, and same sex parents who don’t own and/or operate breasts but are also (just like us) successfully raising children and bonding with them just as beautifully as anyone.
Every loving parent deserves a support group.
In other words, every single one of us has a story and a reason and a love for their child that cannot be quantified and should NEVER FOR ANY REASON be compared.
I realize that it is completely fucked up that breastfeeding in a public forum is anything but celebrated. And I have HUGE respect for lactivists and all women who advocate for breastfeeding awareness and reform. I also have huge respect for everyone else who is doing their best to love and nourish their children.
Not that we shouldn’t all (even bottle/formula feeders) make breastfeeding our business. We live in a puritanical country that somehow manages to sexualize everything about the female body while simultaneously censoring the female body.
A nipple will bring an R rating to a movie faster than a torture scene will_._ That’s so unbelievable to me I want to scream. And cry. And scream again.
…But let us not forget, as we work together to reverse the hypocrisy, that celebrating breastfeeding does not have to mean discounting those who, for whatever reason, did not.
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Every loving parent deserves a support group. Even the ones who do it differently. NO ONE, man or woman, should feel shamed feeding his/her baby on a park bench on a Sunday afternoon—whether by bottle, breast or both.
