BREASTFEEDING IN PUBLIC IS NOT HIPPIES, AND SHOULD BE MORE STANDARDIZED

Breast milk is the most complete food we can give a baby, as it changes as the child grows, to contain all the nutrients necessary for its development.

In fact, for thousands of years, nobody considered the suitability of this liquid gold, as it was the natural way to feed babies. And women around the world, breastfeeding their children as natural, without being judged for it.

So why do we now have to continue defending women who breastfeed their children in public? Has the culture of breastfeeding been lost in Spain? Dr. Susana Ares, coordinator of the Breastfeeding Committee of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP), says yes and says that society sees the mother who breastfeeds in public as a hippie, when it is something totally normal.

My experience 'in secret'

I have always been clear that I wanted to breastfeed my children and fortunately I could do it, although perhaps not as long as I had wanted. Because in the seven years that have taken, the appreciation of a mother breastfeeding her son changed considerably for good, but not everything necessary.

I was separated from my daughter when she was born and no one in public motherhood guided me to put her to the chest for the first time three hours later.

But things didn't get better afterwards, since to breastfeed her in the street, she became a true odyssey: I had to go to the car, cover the window with a jacket so they wouldn't see us, run to the bathroom of a bar when I had to eat it and put my baby to suck on the toilet lid ... I was afraid that my little girl wanted to eat on the street in case I couldn't find a place to hide!

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After three months I had to give up breastfeeding to return to work, since "Taking a nursing license was an excuse to work less" (as my boss saw it). Nor did I have a support network around me that would allow me to continue offering my daughter's breast after long working hours.

I still remember how loaded my breasts were the first days of my return to work and that I had to lock myself in one of the toilets in the bathroom to extract the milk by hand and lighten the pain somewhat.

I have the feeling that all breastfeeding was sneaking, because it was not right to show my breasts in public.

A more open breastfeeding

Fortunately with my young son our experience with breastfeeding was completely different. We were not separated at any time since he was born and just put it on top of it he reptilian alone to the chest and began to suck. I felt so happy to see that everything was fine!

And the following days and months were just as simple: I ate when I wanted to and where it came from. Only when I agreed to walk with my mother, he asked me to "I will cover a little for education." And he put a jacket in front or whatever he had on hand, for not arguing.

But sincerely I am not aware of whether they looked at me badly when I nursed my baby in public because I didn't care. I knew what I wanted and that what I was doing was the best for my son and, what the rest of the world thought, I didn't care. And so it was until we had to stop breastfeeding due to health problems.

So when my little sister had her first daughter and breastfed her until she was two years old, I could only feel envious. Naturally, I offered it to her when she requested it and when my niece grew up, it was she who climbed on top and removed her shirt or whatever she wore and what to eat! Anywhere.

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And with my little niece, the same. She was breastfeeding beyond three years, until she weaned only a few months ago. And everything was possible because her mother was able to enjoy a breastfeeding permit, a room in her work to express her milk, a reduced work schedule to be able to spend more time with her daughter and a grandmother who gave her the bible with milk maternal when she was not.

And I assure you, Neither of us are hippies, or freed and shameless women who walk around showing our breasts to all. In fact, I have never done topless in public, but I do not see any sense in which mothers have to hide today, as I had to do when breastfeeding my first daughter.

Why feeding our children is something natural and beautiful and the problem is that who looks at the woman's breasts and see them as something 'perverted'. Can there be anything more beautiful than a mother raising her baby while the two look at each other with love?

And those who criticize him "for the bad example they can give children", they fall back into a great lie: they are the ones who badly educate their children by pointing out as 'wrong' something as natural as breastfeeding, even criticizing women who breastfeed in public spaces.

What they have to do is lead by example in front of their children, normalizing an image that has been repeated throughout history and that we seem to have forgotten.

Because that is breastfeeding: the natural and normal way of feeding our children, although the data reflect that only two out of five babies continue to be fed exclusively with breast milk in Spain.

Why breastfeeding should be normalized

Breast milk always feeds and its benefits for the mother and the baby are scientifically proven: it reduces the risk of sudden infant death, counteracts the genetic predisposition to obesity, less likely to suffer from diabetes, long-term immunity, hypertension and others cardiovascular pathologies, and many more.

Thus, although after the first hours of delivery it is normal not to have much milk, the production is adjusted to the demand of the baby. That is why it is so important to put it to your chest every time you cry or when you show signs of hunger, whether in a public space or at home.

But it seems that not everyone thinks the same, because it is not the first time that we have to 'report' any case of discrimination to a mother because she is breastfeeding her son.

Mothers are 'invited' to cover themselves in airplanes, in swimming pools, in a shopping center ...

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Mothers insist on affirming that this prohibition lies, above all, in prejudices and lack of social information, despite the fact that the UN recognizes breastfeeding as a human right for babies and mothers.

Conclusion: Breastfeeding is natural and nobody should restrict this right in any public space.

Examples such as those of some models breastfeeding on the catwalk, politicians and athletes breastfeeding while they continue with their normal activity, are undoubtedly good examples for those people who still ask for a mother to cover herself while breastfeeding. If even the Pope encourages mothers to breastfeed in the Sistine Chapel!

And it is that in the 21st century it should be something unquestionable, although unfortunately, from time to time there are still controversies of this kind that indicate the need to make the problem visible.

And these days, which celebrates World Breastfeeding Week, we want to talk about it again. It is our grain of sand to normalize something that has to be normal and always has been.

Hopefully next year, by the same dates, it is no longer necessary to give a voice to nursing mothers because no one has questioned them by feeding their children to the breast wherever they want and when they want. Because breastfeeding in public is not just a matter of hippies.