Recently, a Malayalam magazine Grihalakshmi had featured the picture of a woman breastfeeding a child and stirred quite a controversy. While many supported the initiative to remove the stigma over the natural process, many found it to be a commercial trick. Well, if you ask new mothers battling the stigma, they are ready to support it.

Backing the magazine’s move is the Facebook forum ‘Breastfeeding Support for Indian Mothers’ (BSIM), which has over 65,000 members consisting of new moms, to-be-moms, their spouses, and families. The forum has been fighting the taboo for the past five years, said 34-year-old Adhunika Prakash, mother of two and the founder of BSIM.

A ‘Breastfeeding Support for Indian Mothers’ meet-up.

“I am glad that Grihalakshmi used this photo on the cover since it has brought breastfeeding to the forefront of discussions. It has been long ignored, considering that it affects every human being on this planet,” she said.

And so, inspired by the magazine’s issue, BSIM started a campaign called Breasts4Babies. Under this every woman is sharing their view or experience of publicly nursing their child. Women have taken to the campaign really well, with many putting up photos of them breastfeeding in addition to their post.

“As a new mother, I did not want to be homebound just because I had a baby to nurse round the clock. But I was also very uncomfortable nursing in public. I would fumble, passing my anxiety to the baby. But a single evening in a park with a dear friend who was nursing her baby confidently changed my perspective. I breastfed my baby along with her and gained the confidence I needed. As my photo of breastfeeding in a flight and my post is public, I hope a struggling mother may see it and be confident to carry on with life while providing for her baby,” shared 36-year-old Chetana Mrunalini.

“I was on a bus with my then one-year-old daughter. It was the end of a long day and she was very tired and wanted to nurse. As it was a very crowded bus, I started nursing her using the two t-shirt method but she kept pushing my top up,” wrote Raksha Raghavan, a software developer.

“I decided to be brave for her sake and continued. One elderly African woman later told me she lauded my hard work and that in South Africa, women breastfed everywhere. That one experience made me bolder and happier. Hopefully next time, when they see a breastfeeding mother, they will make her comfortable,” she added.

“We feel that it is important to support nursing in public because we cannot expect the breastfeeding parent to be restricted at home during the course of the entire breastfeeding journey,” said Adhunika.

Don’t you think it is high time that we accept that breastfeeding indeed is a natural process, and stop shaming a life-giving mother into not nursing her hungry child in public?

H/T: The Quint