Why educating our young children about breastfeeding is so important. Right now, Wendy Williams is getting a lot of attention because of her "negative" views about public breastfeeding. In a recent airing of her show, she sat down with actress and mom, Alyssa Milano. Milano is a breastfeeding mother who shares pictures on social media in hopes to help Normalize Breastfeeding in a world that sexualizes it. Milano defended her right to breastfeed in public as Wendy stated "I don't want to see that." Wendy went on to say that public breastfeeding makes her "uncomfortable."
After seeing the episode myself, I realized that changing Wendy's opinion now, was close to impossible. Being "comfortable" with something is learned. When we are young children we learn from our many experiences. These experiences make up what we choose to believe and stand by as adults. It is my observation that the attitudes children have are similar to those of their parents. They react to things/situations the way they observed their parents and other influential adults react in the past. Normalizing breastfeeding starts by teaching our children the real purpose of the act, object, etc. My hope is that by teaching our children about breastfeeding at a young age, we will help them fully understand the importance of the act. The intent of breastfeeding is to nourish, not to sexualize breasts and deem breastfeeding inappropriate. My name is Abbie Paulson, a mother and breastfeeding advocate. I recently wrote a children's book to help teach young children that breastfeeding is natural, beautiful and protected by the law. "Oh The Places You Can Breastfeed." is a book made up of illustrations portraying women of all ethnicities, and ages who are nursing freely, uncovered in a multitude of public settings. After all, that is the law.
In my home state of Minnesota, according to this website the law states:
"145.905 LOCATION FOR BREAST-FEEDING. A mother may breast-feed in any location, public or private, where the mother and child are otherwise authorized to be, irrespective of whether the nipple of the mother’s breast is uncovered during or incidental to the breast-feeding. History: 1998
617.23 INDECENT EXPOSURE; PENALTIES. … Subd. 4.Breast-feeding. It is not a violation of this section for a woman to breast-feed."
http://breastfeedinglaw.com/state-laws/minnesota/
Teaching children about the breastfeeding laws may help us avoid adult opinions like Wendy's and so many others who feel uncomfortable when seeing a woman breastfeeding her child. "Oh The Places You Can Breastfeed." is an attempt to help Normalize the act of Breastfeeding while children are young, because as Frederick Douglass once said "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."
To learn more about this book, please visit my facebook page for more information and updates about the book. "Oh The Places You Can Breastfeed." will be available for purchase on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com in February. (Link Below)
Facebook - Abbie Paulson
Stay tuned for updates on exact release date and price!
As always, I send positive vibes and love to my fellow bloggers and readers! Thank you for reading!
-Abbie Paulson