Women are the vessels that bring life to the world.
From the moment of conception they love and nurture their baby and continue to do so for the rest of their lives.
A natural part of raising an infant is breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding is an important part of nurturing because the breast milk itself has important vitamins and nutrients vital to the development of a baby.
It’s a tiring yet rewarding process that all women should be commended for.
Because of these reasons, and many others, women should feel comfortable breastfeeding when not in the comfort and privacy of their home.
Recently, Fresno High School has added a lactation room to their campus.
According to an article in The Fresno Bee, the room allows for staff and young mothers to breastfeed comfortably.
The room is also equipped with a fridge, rocking chair, and changing table for mothers who have infants.
If a high school can provide a comfortable place for mothers to perform this completely natural, inevitable act, then why has the community college and university system not caught up with it.
It seems more fitting that colleges would have these rooms as it is hopefully more likely that the rooms would get used more than that of a high school.
Breastfeeding and pumping is already an uncomfortable process it seems unfair to subject women to more discomfort by using a random storage room, or even worse, a bathroom.
For one, when using a random room there is always a chance of being walked in on.
Second, the use of a public restroom to pump is even more uncomfortable and completely unsanitary.
These women just went through the process of carrying a child for nine months, then labor and now breastfeeding.
The considerate thing to do would be to give proper accommodations to these women.
It is the least they deserve.
This seems like common sense, and an argument that people would easily get behind.
However, there’s a stigma around breastfeeding that makes people uncomfortable.
Sometimes the urge to lactate is so unbearable it has to be done at that moment.
It’s not something that can be easily scheduled, not that women have not done or tried it.
So if a woman with her child has to breastfeed out in public she should not be looked down upon for doing so where she feels comfortable.
Yes, there are women who just sort of whip it out without coverage.
There are many who cover up to make those around her not feel uncomfortable.
It is really just basic consideration for one another.
To take the argument further if schools and workplaces can find a way to accommodate these women then why can’t other business such as restaurants and stores.
If it really does make people that uncomfortable then why not provide these lactation rooms.
Really, it would make both parties more comfortable.
A high school student from Georgia just recently began to advocate for this exact thing.
According to ABC News, Sophie Mumper of Decatur, Georgia began encouraging local restaurants to begin welcoming breastfeeding in their establishments.
Her idea was to post signs saying “breastfeeding welcomed here.”
The idea is a plausible one.
If these establishments don’t have the means to put in these rooms then the least they can do is stand behind mothers in support.
With the support of the managing staff of said establishments it can help ease some of the stigma and fears of being humiliated for breastfeeding in public.
Even if customers aren’t completely comfortable with the idea of having the support of those who run the businesses would, really, make mothers more comfortable.
Having these accommodation and support would also help women feel more comfortable going out early into motherhood.
The bottom-line is schools, colleges, business and workplaces should stand behind mothers not look down upon them.
It’s the 21st century we should leave the archaic ideology of what is socially acceptable and accommodate those that need accommodating.
We do so for the disabled and impaired. We should do so for the new moms.
Mothers and their babies deserve better.
