Breastfeeding is an unequaled way of providing ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants; it is also an integral part of the reproductive process with important implications for the health of mothers…
Breast milk is the natural first food for babies, it provides all the energy and nutrients that the infant needs for the first months of life, and it continues to provide up to half or more of a child’s nutritional needs during the second half of the first year, and up to one-third during the second year of life.
World Health Organization[1]
Conventional wisdom says that breastfeeding is good for moms and a healthy choice for babies – and medical science supports this, but there seems to be more than a little controversy when it comes to mothers breastfeeding their babies in public.
Stop or Get Off!
The video below was created by a mom who was repeatedly asked to leave a public bus because she was breastfeeding her 2-week-old baby. The driver asked the mother to stop nursing her child. When the mother refused to stop nursing her child, the driver asked her to leave the bus and then the driver refused to move the bus when the mother would not comply. The driver called the dispatch center for instructions. The instructions were to ask the mother to stop breastfeeding or leave the bus. Next, a security guard got involved…and the story doesn’t stop there. Apparently, the driver and the dispatcher didn’t know that breastfeeding in public is not illegal in Michigan.
