These Moms Want to Stop Being Shamed for Bottle-Feeding

The campaign, “Stop Making Women Guilty!” defends the right to bottle-feed children without any shame or guilt from outsiders or from other mothers.

Lauren Bastide, nightly current affairs commentator for Grand Journal, and Titiou Lecoq, feminist blogger and author, are the driving forces behind the campaign that urge the public to refrain from pressuring women to breastfeed. Furthermore, the launch of the campaign hopes to spread the message that bottle-feeding does not equal bad mothering. The women associated with the campaign worry that society is moving backwards. In order for long-term breastfeeding to be exclusive and successful, women will have to take two years maternity leave, therefore “hurting the economy by not actively participating in global productivity.”

The woman’s choice is of upmost importance to the group. They write poignantly, “We should not make either bottle-feeders feel guilty or mock the choices of breastfeeders. Everything comes back to the same problem: the judgment of others.”

 

Cover image courtesy of Shutterstock.

By S. Nicole Lane on February 10, 2016
Nicole is a women's health journalist living in Chicago. Her sex and art column, "Intimate Justice" can be found on Sixty Inches from Center. She also contributes to The Establishment, HelloGiggles, GO Magazine, and elsewhere. In addition to writing she is an artist who works with assemblage and sculpture. She tweets at @snicolelane.