Moms Strike Back With Feed-In Protests

(Newswire.net — January 5, 2018) Cheyenne, Wyoming — Brazil is known for having some of the most beautiful people lounging across the Copacabana Beach – moreover, many of them are found sunbathing topless. However, for a country whose people are so comfortable with flaunting their bodies, there are so many others who are uncomfortable with the sight of mothers breastfeeding their infants in public. 

In 2016, a “feed-in” protest was held at the Museum of Image and Sound in Sao Paulo in response to shaming of Brazilian model Prescila Navarro Bueno for breastfeeding her child in the venue. A security guard noted that she was nursing her seven month old infant while observing the David Bowie exhibition that was on display and felt compelled to demand she leaves the premises due to her performance of breastfeeding in a public space.  

“Unfortunately, society is still very puritanical. During Carnival, women can show their breasts, but it is not permitted to do so to give milk to your child. It is absurd that woman have to breastfeed in a hidden room,” said Prescila Navarro Bueno.  

Since the aforementioned incident, a number of support groups for nursing moms have organized annual “feed-in” protests known as “Mamaço Time” in defiance of insensitive public views and in assertion of a mother’s right to feed her hungry infant whenever and wherever they may be.

This radical display of solidarity is increasingly prevalent throughout the world as Nottingham, England experienced at a Sports Direct store in 2014. A customer of the franchise was shopping when her baby requested a feed so she quietly began nursing in the shop only to be confronted and informed that she cannot tend to her child’s basic need on the property.

“It was so upsetting and as a mother, it’s heartbreaking when your baby is crying, not to be able to give your child what they need,” said Leah Gibson, one of the feed-in protest organizers. “It’s not as if we go around with nipple tassels on shouting ‘Oh, look at me!’.” 

The unwarranted sexualization of breastfeeding is a deliberately skewed view that needs to be addressed and removed from all notions related to motherhood. Unfortunately, it seems to be an uphill battle as the district of West Kelowna, Canada was approached in 2015 by nursing students from the University of British Columbia with regards to the city hall endorsement of their breastfeeding-friendly initiative but they were turned down. Had the request been granted, pro-breastfeeding stickers and posters sensitizing people to the cause would be erected throughout the council grounds. 

It’s a sad mystery that babies being breastfed in public is considered by some a questionable act when nature has clearly made allotment for it to occur. Many communities of nursing moms press forth demanding their rights to freely breastfeed as they deem necessary. What many overlook is that effort involved in nursing is quite a lot for a mother to deliver the best to her infant as diet, rest and time are constantly being renegotiated to meet a breast-feeding infant’s needs. Such responsibility lies squarely on mothers, so monitoring one’s lifestyle is critical to their health and that of their infant. 

With relations to what a nursing mom consumes, it’s important to be mindful of any alcoholic ingested whether by way of a drink or meal. Since alcohol passes freely from the blood stream into the milk supply, mom needs to know her wait time, which is how long to wait for her body to completely metabolize and expel alcohol from her system. Conducting a quick home kit test of a sample of milk is a quick and reliable option. The HealthyWiser™ PureMilk™ alcohol detecting strips for breastfeeding are among the best available on the market right now.