Karen Haviland
I will admit I am not always comfortable with the sight of a woman breastfeeding. Let me explain myself here before there is a collective witch hunt.
As you know, and I have said it many times, I am a dinosaur (if you want to call someone born in ’52 a dinosaur). There was a different mindset back then because women were starting to enter the workforce in greater numbers and it became expedient and handy to buy baby formula and dispense with archaic breastfeeding. I hope you realize that the prior sentence is said with tongue in cheek.
Before we knew it, for many, breastfeeding was actually looked down upon and considered low class and ignorant. In order to dry up their milk, women would tightly bind their breasts and the bottle became the must-have of feeding infants. In fact, no self-respecting woman would breastfeed, let alone dare to do it in public. That’s the climate I was raised in.
Boy, has the world ever changed, and for the better, since we became more educated.
I now know how detrimental bottled milk is for those infants. Numerous studies indicate breastfeeding is the best choice. Notice I said choice? There are many and various reasons why some mothers choose the bottle over the breast. Their need for bottle feeding is just as great and valid as other mothers want for breast feeding.
Because of those studies and much education, a lightening of attitude changed how people looked at breastfeeding.
Statistics gathered by Statistics Canada shows that as of 2012, 89 per cent of mothers breastfed their babies, and even more interestingly, those who breastfed for six months or more were older (in their 30s or older) and had post-secondary education. I guess those statistics disprove the thought of earlier generations that only the poor and uneducated breastfed. (statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-624-x/2013001/article/11879-eng.htm)
Anyway, today I came upon a picture which showed a woman breastfeeding her child while on the toilet. At first I was shocked. I mean, seriously? Yes, Karen, seriously.
After reading the story and taking my archaic views of breastfeeding out of the equation, I was able to grasp the whole picture.
You see, I remember being a busy mother and never having a moment to myself, not even in the bathroom. If I was in the bathroom and had locked or closed the door, you can bet that was no deterrent for my separation anxiety-ridden son. Where I went, he went, even if it was to the bathroom.
So it stands to reason that 1+1=2. Mom had to use the bathroom+baby is hungry=breastfeeding while on the toilet. One argument someone who saw the picture used was that eating in the bathroom is, well, yucky. Other readers pointed out that while they wouldn’t eat while on the toilet, the one doing the eating was a 15-month-old baby who just happened to be hungry at that moment, whether mom was sitting on the toilet or not.
It was also pointed out that people are less incensed by images of breasts taken purely for drooling (you know what I mean, right?) than pictures of women breastfeeding. I considered that for a long moment, a very long moment, and had to admit that for the most part that statement is correct.
So, where does that leave my outdated and definitely skewed view of breastfeeding? I hope that it now leaves it in the dark ages where I was obviously stuck when it came to this subject.
I don’t think I will ever be comfortable with seeing someone breastfeed in public — that’s the old school way of thinking.
But women should not have to hide when they are breastfeeding their child. If they do, then I say that all people feeding their child, whether it be breastfeeding or bottle feeding, should have to hide. Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Well, it is, and thus how and when we choose to feed our child is a personal choice and no one else’s business.
