Breast Feeding In Public Essay

Breast feeding in Public Do your child a favor and feed them breast milk, but do the people a favor and stop doing it in public. Breast feeding is making a comeback in the 21st century. American views, customs, and beliefs have changed a lot in the last 100 years making it harder for breast feeding mothers, especially in public. Women should side step breast feeding in public; there are many reasons why breast feeding should not be done in public.

After World War II, breast feeding became known as something for poorer people to take up or people in developing countries and infant formula was used by the wealthy because it was very costly. (DiLascio par. 2). Now breast feeding is on the rise. According to New York professor and nutrition researcher,

Mothers should not breast feed in public considering the many way they can get the nutrients to their child when he or she needs it without flaunting their breasts. Mothers can pump breast milk using a breast pump and freeze their milk for later use, use a cover when in public to breast feed, or find a private place away from others to breast feed. If breast feeding mothers pump their breast milk they can put it in a bottle to feed to their infant in public. Many community health departments provide breast pumps for free to nursing mothers, granted mothers must return them at the duration of use. By freezing their milk mothers can always have back-up milk to take with them when going out in public or taking their child to a babysitter. Frozen breast milk is good for up to five weeks. Although, freezing does have its downsides. Mothers will always have to make sure they have some milk thawed just in case. Also, they may have to microwave their milk to get it to the right temperature for the infant, which pediatricians do no recommend. Therefore, women should try to thaw their breastmilk to room temperature for their baby. If by chance, mothers run out of breast milk while in public, it may be smart to have a can of infant formula with them as back-up. If women do have to resort to breast feeding in public they

La Leche League, an interest group that advocates and researches breast feeding, has researched many positive outcomes that comes out of breast feeding and believes that breast feeding is overall better than bottle-feeding: “Studies claim higher IQs, greater resistance to allergies and illness, and all-around better outcomes for their children” (DiLascio par. 5). Breast milk has a wide range of nutrients and is easily digested by infants, it also includes antibodies that help infants fight off infections and help breast feeding mothers and infants share stronger bonds due to the release of oxytocin. (Rusike par. 2-6). The skin-to-skin contact during the time of breast feeding is crucial to the mother and child bond. Pediatricians recommend that infants be strictly breast fed for the first six months of life and then slowly transition to solids and baby food throughout the next twelve months for the best results and outcomes of breast feeding. (DiLascio par. 5). The physical and emotional outcomes are all reasons that mothers should try to breast feed their child for the six to twelve months of life. In public is not the place for breast feeding, which is why women should try to breast feed their child as much as possible when at home or in private. Most people believe that women should not be allowed to openly breast feed in public, controversially, there are laws put in place