Gee, that’s a surprise! (oh, and that was sarcasm :))

A recent study has shown that most Gen-Yers are “embarrassed to breastfeed in public“.

According to an article on news.com.au and study by Queensland University of Technology showed that:

More than 50 per cent of women believed it would be uncomfortable to breastfeed in public, and a majority of men and women did not want their child to be breastfed in public for fear of embarrassment.

It also went on to say that most also did not fully understand the benefits of breastfeeding, ages to introduce solids etc etc.

Does anyone else think that perhaps the constant negative publicity surrounding breastfeeding in public my the media, and seemingly encouraged by organisations that “support” breastfeeding may have impacted on, oh, I don’t know, people who are yet to experience having a baby?

I’m alert to such things in the media and have had many a rant on this blog and others about the fact that while 27% of the population may be against it, it would indicate that 63% are for it, don’t care, or don’t know. Taking into account the ’for it’ and ‘don’t care’, one (perhaps I’m that only one?) would assume that it’s pretty much culturally acceptable.

Unless, of course, that remaining 63% fall into the “don’t know” category, in which case they are not living in this country, or been anywhere in the vicinity of me, who openly breastfed in various public places, and some VERY public places.

What I’m getting at is I find it highly unlikely that a majority of those who aren’t against breastfeeding in public fall into the “what are you talking about?” category.

Further, what I’m getting at is that 27% – ie less than a third – are against it, yet the focus seems to be on that particular group and what they think and believe. This is the minority, people!

Since when do we bow to them?!

Not suggesting there isn’t a need for some kind of education for the masses to understand it more and accept it. Particularly now that we’ve spent so bloody long focussing on all the negatives of it and we now have to undo it all!

I also don’t like to discredit the possible impact of Western societies penchant for sexualising boobs either, and do wonder if the results of this study were perhaps influenced party by this, and also the fact that the cohort haven’t actually experienced having a baby and doing stuff with it. I know before I had kids, I didn’t think of my boobs as being a source of food for anyone, as were the thoughts of many women I know. So potentially flawed results.

As for understanding how and why breastfeeding is “preferred”, some information would be really handy. “Breast is best” and “bottle feeding is obscene” is, sadly, not information and is, in fact, bullying and … obscene!

And perhaps if it wasn’t rammed down out throats (pardon the pun) every 5 minutes during our pregnancies, we may be a little more open to hearing about it’s benefits and not stressing about not being able to do it for fear of being considered a bad mother!

So, hopping off my high horse now, I, personally, am not at all surprised at this outcome, and will continue my rhetoric about focussing on the positives of breastfeeding in public; like most people don’t care if you do or not, and perhaps we can then affect cultural change. Not that a majority of the population need it, coz they seem to be pretty cool about it.

And I do have to apologise to any non-breastfeeders – actually, scrap that, I will use the term loud and proud – bottle feeders out there if I have inadvertently reinforced any negative feelings you have about bottle feeding. I say kudos to you, and you are doing the absolute best you can be doing for your bubs – you all rock and as far as I’m concerned if you are feeding it, caring for it and loving it then you ROCK! Keep it up