Should Women Breastfeed in Public?

Science has yet to create an artificial food more perfect for baby than mother’s own milk. The benefits that scientific research has uncovered are too many to present here in entirety, but here’s a partial list:

• Breastmilk builds a baby’s immunities against disease.

• Breastmilk prevents the risk of certain illnesses and infections, which, in turn, can decrease the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

• Human milk provides all the nutrients a baby requires. It contains the perfect mix of protein, fats, carbohydrates and vitamins for human babies, in a form that’s more readily absorbed than the additives in formulas.

• The composition of mother’s breastmilk changes according to a baby’s changing needs.

• Breastmilk reduces a baby’s chance of developing allergies, certain cancers, and diabetes.

• Breastfed babies are at less risk for obesity later in life.

• Breastfeeding promotes proper tooth, tongue, and jaw growth required for language development.

• Nutrients in breastmilk enhance baby’s brain development and actually increase I.Q.

• In addition, breastfeeding can significantly reduce the mother’s risk of breast cancer.

Child heath is an important focus for our society, and the above reasons combine for a compelling reason to support breastfeeding as an important component of child health.  

The World Health Organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Canadian Pediatric Society all recommend breastmilk as the ideal food for the growth and development of babies for a minimum of the first six months of life.

Babies need to breastfeed every 2 - 4 hours, and mothers should not be made to stay at home or retreat to bathroom stalls to feed their children. Therefore, it stands to reason that we should celebrate and support breastfeeding in public as a necessary component of child health and welfare. Let’s take away this entire argument by making breastfeeding a social norm.