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Breastfeeding in Public: a Women's Rights Issue

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Breastfeeding is a healthy, natural ability of every woman, and should therefore be socially acceptable and supported by everyone. For some reason this is not the case in our society, in fact breastfeeding continues to be a controversial issue that must be addressed by women’s rights activist groups. Breastfeeding is a feminist issue because the natural act has been medicalized and devalued by major companies because of their interests in profits in bottle feeding. According to Penny Van Esterik a coordinator in the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA), women should never have to choose between their duties as a mother and their duties as a responsible, hard working employee. Our society pressures, exploits and oppresses women …show more content…

ProMoM also has a website which allows mothers and those interested in promoting breastfeeding across the country, to connect through discussion panels. In addition to increasing public awareness, ProMoM is very beneficial to new mothers because it provides articles that highlight the importance of breastfeeding, and it also lists the myths and realities of breastfeeding.
“Breastfeeding: A Feminist Issue” is one of the articles found on ProMoM’s website. The article was written by Penny Van Esterik. In the article, Van Esterilists lists the reasons why women’s groups and nonprofit organizations put so much time and resources behind breastfeeding campaigns and programs. Van Esterik also highlights ways in which women’s groups can increase breastfeeding awareness to the public.
ProMoM also believes that “in the time that it takes to fill out your name and email address, you can be a breastfeeding activist.” For this reason, ProMoM has a 3 Minutes Activist Section. All that is needed to be a 3 Minute Activist is one’s name and email address. The team at ProMoM and the 3 Minute Activists keep their eye out for opportunities to praise or criticize the media for breastfeeding. Once the activist sees such an opportunity, all they have to do is email the team and their observations will be put on ProMoM’s website for everyone to see. The activist’s observations can

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