Where is the Breast Best?

(image via healthfulmama.com)

Breastfeeding in the workplace is not a new phenomenon, but it is hardly any less controversial than when it first began.  State and national laws generally support the practice, but the controversy refuses to die down.  Apparently, there is something about breasts that gets people all worked up.

Breastfeeding has long been recognized as the best way to deliver a newborn baby the proper nutrients for his or her development, yet the number of women who choose to breastfeed their newborns is nowhere near recommended levels.  A combination of barraging advertisements, doctor’s “recommendations,” and convenience leads many new mothers to forgo breastfeeding altogether.

For the few who decide to stick it out in the best interests of their baby, the road is not an easy one.  This is especially true for mothers who go back to work—as well as mothers who want to breastfeed in public spaces, or in a retail store, or . . . you get the idea.  There are 24 states (plus D.C.) with laws protecting breastfeeding in the workplace. On the federal level, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended the Fair Labor Standards Act to require employers to provide reasonable break time for employees to breastfeed, or pump breast milk for their nursing children for one year following birth.

So if the federal government is on board, why is there still so much controversy over breastfeeding?  The argument against breastfeeding in the workplace (or in public) has been around for years.  People against it are not generally against the act of breastfeeding; they just feel that it should be done in total privacy.  There is a slim minority, however, who are totally opposed to breastfeeding altogether.  According to those against workplace breastfeeding, the act should be a private one between mother her baby.  The vast majority of women support breastfeeding, however, with eighty percent of women breastfeeding their children at some point after birth.

After all this time spent arguing over where breastfeeding is “appropriate,” it seems like the real problem here isn’t the fact that women are breastfeeding—whether it be in view of others or not—but rather, that women are forced to choose between childcare duties and having a fulltime job.  If women weren’t put in the position of having to choose between breastfeeding or pumping at work and staying home with the kids, maybe this controversy would finally die down.  It seems that the solution is to have more childcare options for working mothers (and fathers).

Options like on-site childcare are a huge step in the right direction for working mothers who breastfeed, but maybe we need something more radical—like government-run childcare facilities, or government-subsidized nannies (like in France).

Until programs like this are the norm, we are stuck in a country where women who want it all pay a premium for childcare and suffer the stigma that comes with breastfeeding at work and in public.  So for now we can argue about etiquette, and ask ourselves: Where should society draw the line?  What about breastfeeding in front of a college class?  In a water park?  In church?

Perhaps the answer is that there shouldn’t be a line at all.  Maybe we all need to take a deep breath and remember that babies are people too, and they are hungry.

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