Argument Essay On Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding has been the preferred method of nourishing a child since the dawn of time. As mammals we are equipped to create life and then sustain said life through a mother’s breast. However, the act of feeding a child in public has become a controversy, pitting mothers against mothers, men against women and breast against breast. We have heard the slogan breast is best, yet as mothers we are faced with hard decisions every day that may interfere with this preferred method of nourishment. The balance of a family, work and play become even more of a struggle, when as a society, we have sexualized breasts so much, thus requiring laws that support breastfeeding mothers, and which ultimately creates a stigma associated with feeding children

Breastfeeding provides the ideal nutrition for infants; it has a perfect mix of vitamins, fats and proteins needed to sustain a child until they are ready to start eating solid food. Babies who have exclusively breastfeed for six months or more, have a lower risk of developing ear infections, respiratory illnesses, as well as gastrointestinal problems and have fewer hospitalizations or trips to the doctors in their first year of life, according to the APA and WHO. Mothers, who breastfeed also have numerous health benefits, such as, lowered risk of breast, uterine and ovarian cancer and osteoporosis. As well as less psychological problems after birth and in the future. “There is much more to breastfeeding than the provision of optimal nutrition and protection from disease through mother 's milk. Breastfeeding provides a unique interaction between mother and child, an automatic, skin-to-skin closeness and nurturing that bottle-feeding mothers have to work to replicate. The child 's suckling at the breast produces a special hormonal milieu for the mother. Prolactin, the milk-making hormone, appears to produce a special calmness in mothers (Altemus 1995). With this amazing statistical information and benefits to the children in our society; why would others choose to interject their opinions on a mother and child and their specific

Places like Target, Hollister and even Victoria Secret are asking women to cover up their breasts because they are making other people uncomfortable. Women who choose to nurse their child in public instead of a bathroom, car or in the isolation of their own home are being harassed, scolded and shamed back into hiding. “I agree that breastfeeding is natural, however it is indecent exposure. A woman walking around with an exposed chest is not something parents want their children to be exposed to; placing a baby in the equation does not change the fact that the woman is still exposing herself to the public.” (Anonymous, 2015) From this comment and many others online, in articles and in public forums, it is apparent that the reason most people are uncomfortable with the natural act of breastfeeding is because they think, that somehow this act is sexual in nature. Nicki Lisa Cole a sociology expert states that, “In nearly all cases, the person who asks the woman to leave or harasses her suggests that what she is doing is indecent, scandalous, or lewd.” (Cole, 2015) The fact that breasts are biologically designed to nourish a child has no bearing on the breast as a sexual toy or tool to coerce and coral men. Their sex appeal is used to sell