In case you live on an internet-free planet (Ahem. Please send directions), let us be the first to inform you that August is Breastfeeding Awareness Month! Which is kicked off by World Breastfeeding Week!

“Brelfies” proliferate. Images of Nic Trunfio nursing on the cover of Elle Australia inevitably get lobbed around Instagram, and moms are encouraged to share their nursing journeys on Facebook.

Having been nursing moms ourselves, we think Breastfeeding Awareness Month is a great tool that can hopefully help to normalize the act of feeding one’s child with one’s boob – especially in public.

What we tend to forget is that although breastfeeding is a non-issue to tons of people (moms especially), it still makes others extremely uncomfortable; which is insane, because nobody who is complaining about a woman nursing on a park bench even thinks twice when they see a half naked woman sprawled across a billboard on the highway. And that’s why breastfeeding needs a month… Because that’s fucking crazytalk.

The oversexualization of the female form has become so commonplace, that when people see breasts being used for their originally intended purpose, it makes them uncomfortable. Because of that, mothers feel uncomfortable, so they retreat to bathrooms to nurse. They rush to their cars. They buy nursing covers (under which it’s nearly impossible to latch a newborn and older babies tend to get all hot and bothered).

Photo by Brittany Knapik

Nursing photos get reported and taken down from social media but a sexy bikini pic gets 500 likes and comments.

This whole clusterfuck of shame, sexualization and misunderstanding is no one person’s fault because it’s SOCIETY’S fault, and that’s why we need to increase the awareness – Awareness of the hypocrisy of it all, and awareness of the effect that’s having on women’s decisions to nurse.

Breastfeeding Awareness Month also serves to educate people on the difficulties associated with breastfeeding, including but not limited to:

Tongue-tied infants

Poor latch

Inverted nipples

Sore/bleeding/raw nipples

Engorgement

Mastitis

Clogged ducts

…

Breastfeeding is no joke. It is work (especially in the beginning). When we normalize THAT, then women won’t have unwarranted expectations of ease, thus avoiding sore disappointment when their experience is less than rainbows and unicorns.

But of course, on the internet especially, there can never be a cause that can stand alone without people trying to make it about them.

“Bottle feeding is beautiful too.”

“FED is best.”

REALLY, PEOPLE? Do you also comment #alllivesmatter on #blacklivesmatter posts? 

Of course FED IS BEST. Nobody is suggesting that you should either breastfeed or make your baby starve. The point is that we need to make the world a less hostile environment for women who choose to breastfeed and to do so in public. In order to accomplish that, we need to talk about breastfeeding, and share images of what it really looks like so that when people see a mother nursing openly in a restaurant, nobody feels the need to tell her to cover up (yes, THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS).

Now, we do feel the need to touch on formula feeding because it often feels like that shit needs its own “awareness month”. Women get tons of flack for NOT nursing – especially within the mom community. They’re shamed, told that they didn’t try hard enough, reminded of all the things that make breast milk the “perfect” baby food and all the things that make formula inferior. Fuck that noise. We definitely need to school formula shamers (hence, THIS post) on all the reasons why they need to mind their own damn business (hence, THIS post), but that does not negate the need to dedicate a month to normalizing breastfeeding

Can we not all agree to focus on one issue at a time? There are endless intersectionalities to explore before turning the page to a new cause. Can we also just shut the hell up if something isn’t working directly toward making OUR lives easier or better, so long as it’s making life easier or better for someone else?

Do we need a month dedicated to building awareness about all the judgmental bullshit women have to deal with on the regular? Yeah. We probably do. Maybe we can put in a request for September (#virgoszn). But it definitely can’t be August. August is already dedicated to an important cause – can we all just agree to leave it that way?

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Featured image via Instagram @mrzyk_moriceau 

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