Monday, April 26, 2010
Before you go and start bashing me and telling me how wrong I am, I urge to relax and keep reading.
I come from Peru and in my country breastfeeding is as normal as holding hands or sneezing. Women everywhere do it all the time wherever they are, be it in the bus, in a park bench or while having breakfast on an outdoor setting. I grew up around this environment seeing my mother breastfeed both my sisters.
Now why is breastfeeding so over rated for me? It isn't, I think it's the most superb thing there is and I can't keep talking about it. I talk about it on facebook, I talk about it on yahoo answers, I even talk about it at home, so much so that my boyfriend is fed up with it.
So that's where the title of this post comes from, it is him who is so over the breastfeeding "phenomenon." Like me, he also grew up seeing breastfeeding mothers do their thing wherever and whenever so when he hears about all the support groups and public breastfeeding sittings he laughs and says it's all ridiculous.
"Why do you need support groups for?" he would ask.
"So that women can be supported when they can't do it on their own," I would say.
"Don't they have their mothers for that?"
"Sometimes their mothers are as clueless as they are."
"Aunts maybe?"
"Nope"
"Neighbor?"
"Errr, no..."
So I have to explain to him that our culture is different from this one when it comes to breastfeeding. Not everyone here grew up around breastfeeding, not everyone here has a mother, aunt, or friendly neighbor who can help them. Sometimes everyone around them don't have a clue since they didn't have that environment either. That's why is such a big deal, that's why support groups exist, that is why people breastfeed in public sometimes, to encourage, to educate, to promote this wonderful thing women can do. Yes, it's wonderful, it's miraculous.
Not only did we conceive and carried a child for nine months, but we also produce the food that will sustain them for a years. Yes years! What more of a miracle do you want.
That's why I write about it, that's why I share what I do. I'm not the "flash your boob in yo' face" kind of gal, but just because I'm in a crowded subway car filled with strangers doesn't mean I'm going to let my baby cry out of hunger. If I have to show skin then let the show begin!
Well that last part is besides the point, the point is that even though my boyfriend fully supports me and even though he knows of all the benefits of breastfeeding, he is still up to his nose with all the drama as he calls it.
"Why can't women just breastfeed without making a fuss, they act like they're saving the world and they're not, they're just feeding their children, what's the big deal?"
That's what he said to me today and he's right. I made an argument about how my breastfeeding in public would encourage other mothers to do it, and discourage sourpusses to stay away if they don't like it, but he shrugged it off and said to simply breastfeed, that is all. So today I decided that I would do just that. Simply breastfeed, minus the drama.
I come from Peru and in my country breastfeeding is as normal as holding hands or sneezing. Women everywhere do it all the time wherever they are, be it in the bus, in a park bench or while having breakfast on an outdoor setting. I grew up around this environment seeing my mother breastfeed both my sisters.
Now why is breastfeeding so over rated for me? It isn't, I think it's the most superb thing there is and I can't keep talking about it. I talk about it on facebook, I talk about it on yahoo answers, I even talk about it at home, so much so that my boyfriend is fed up with it.
So that's where the title of this post comes from, it is him who is so over the breastfeeding "phenomenon." Like me, he also grew up seeing breastfeeding mothers do their thing wherever and whenever so when he hears about all the support groups and public breastfeeding sittings he laughs and says it's all ridiculous.
"Why do you need support groups for?" he would ask.
"So that women can be supported when they can't do it on their own," I would say.
"Don't they have their mothers for that?"
"Sometimes their mothers are as clueless as they are."
"Aunts maybe?"
"Nope"
"Neighbor?"
"Errr, no..."
So I have to explain to him that our culture is different from this one when it comes to breastfeeding. Not everyone here grew up around breastfeeding, not everyone here has a mother, aunt, or friendly neighbor who can help them. Sometimes everyone around them don't have a clue since they didn't have that environment either. That's why is such a big deal, that's why support groups exist, that is why people breastfeed in public sometimes, to encourage, to educate, to promote this wonderful thing women can do. Yes, it's wonderful, it's miraculous.
Not only did we conceive and carried a child for nine months, but we also produce the food that will sustain them for a years. Yes years! What more of a miracle do you want.
That's why I write about it, that's why I share what I do. I'm not the "flash your boob in yo' face" kind of gal, but just because I'm in a crowded subway car filled with strangers doesn't mean I'm going to let my baby cry out of hunger. If I have to show skin then let the show begin!
Well that last part is besides the point, the point is that even though my boyfriend fully supports me and even though he knows of all the benefits of breastfeeding, he is still up to his nose with all the drama as he calls it.
"Why can't women just breastfeed without making a fuss, they act like they're saving the world and they're not, they're just feeding their children, what's the big deal?"
That's what he said to me today and he's right. I made an argument about how my breastfeeding in public would encourage other mothers to do it, and discourage sourpusses to stay away if they don't like it, but he shrugged it off and said to simply breastfeed, that is all. So today I decided that I would do just that. Simply breastfeed, minus the drama.
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