You are sitting on a park bench. A smiling woman approaches you, with a stroller carrying a small infant, and sits on the same bench. She then lifts her baby from this stroller, covers with a blanket, and starts nursing her whimpering child. What do you do?
Between all the removed posts from Instagram, sexualization of and backlash on social media, one can draw that public breastfeeding (or photos thereof) has become a public debate for moms and onlookers. However, many mothers (including celebrities like Gwen Stefani, Gisele Bundchen, Yaya Dacosta, and some others) have posted their nursing photos in protest and continue to nurse their children publicly.
“Forty-nine states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands have laws that specifically allow women to breastfeed in any public or private location,” according to the National Conference of State Legislature.
The Public Breastfeeding Law is written as follows:
“Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a woman may breastfeed her child at any location in a Federal building or on Federal property, if the woman and her child are otherwise authorized to be present at the location.”
In addition, nursing moms have gotten leverage in the workplace (thanks, President Obama!) to pump for their children for an allotted amount of time.
Also according to the NCSL, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act during his first term, in March 2010.
“Among many provisions, Section 4207 of the law amends the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 (29 U.S. Code 207) to require an employer to provide reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for one year after the child's birth each time such employee has need to express milk.”
It goes on to state that: "Twenty-nine states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands exempt breastfeeding from public indecency laws,” and “Six states and Puerto Rico have implemented or encouraged the development of a breastfeeding awareness education campaign.”
Nursing mothers are constantly asked to cover, but the more alarming factor is their opposers’ requests for them to completely stop breastfeeding in public. Instagram has received complaints for its removal of posts of nursing moms, and the “covered” photos we speak of are constantly reported by Instagram community users. However, mothers nationwide are encouraged by images of mother being mothers: including the act of breastfeeding.
On August 31st, The Guardian posted an article on the benefits of mothers connecting on social media and how it can “help maternal mental health.”
“Connecting with people via social media is immediate, with responses often instant. Positive replies can become an addictive gratification, bringing confirmation of the image people want to project of themselves, be it intelligence, charisma or wit,” author Dr. Carrie Ladd, stated. “Social media offers an uninhibited space in which people can express themselves freely, bringing with it the bounty of validation of who they are, where they fit within a social circle and their place within a community. Arguably, this is the essence of good mental health and is particularly pertinent when talking about women - and men - when they have a baby.”
So these images, when tasteful and purposeful, help mothers to feel confident in their ability to parent. Aside from all the backlash mothers get from nursing, opposers lack the desire to research and educate themselves on the good that public nursing does, or the acceptance that is indeed a normal, natural, lawful thing.
