Beyonce's Public Breast-Feeding Brings Hope for Women
Beyonce's alleged choice to breast-feed her baby in public has caused a stir among women in the black community, and among women in general who often find it difficult to nurse their babies outside of the home.
The award-winning singer was recently spotted breast-feeding her new daughter, Blue Ivy, according to Us Weekly magazine. Although many women breast-feed publicly, the simple act may have impacted black mothers around the country.
Kimberly Seals Allers, founder of the black motherhood blog called Mocha Manual who also authored the book series The Mocha Manual, wrote an open letter to white women to express the importance of Beyonce's act.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"..I need to claim this moment for African-American women. When it comes to the power of celebrity breast-feeding role models, to normalize breast-feeding, add the lifestyle cache and make it trendy like has happened among white women, we have very few," Allers wrote. "Beyonce is our Angelina Jolie. Our Gisele, Madonna and Gwen wrapped up into one fabulously black and married woman. Meanwhile, with all the news reports about Beyonce, and all the breast-feeding 'advocates' talking about its impact on the nursing world, not one advocate mentioned the particular significance to black women – which is so striking since many claim to be interested in our breast-feeding plight."
The plight that Allers wrote about stems from the 2010 Center for Disease Control and Prevention report that says 74 percent of white mothers breast-feed their infants compared to 54 percent of black women. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics updated its guidelines for mothers last week, suggesting that all women breast-feed in order to decrease the risk of ear infections, obesity, cardiovascular disease, pneumonia, SIDS-related deaths and several types of cancers in the mother.
Still, some mothers have been fighting for their right to breast-feed publicly. Nirvana Jennette, a mother who was asked to cover up when breast-feeding her baby in a Georgia church last summer, is leading a protest to protect her rights in the state.
Jennette, a doula and childbirth educator, staged a "nurse-in" at five Georgia locations including the state capitol on Monday. She met with the state law makers on Wednesday, and explained her reasoning for doing so in a Time magazine report.
"It was overwhelming, I didn't see myself ever being here doing this," Jennette said. " I was okay being a mom at home. But our law needs to be changed so it's a comprehensive, supportive law for breast-feeding mothers."
While Jennette has made a statement about breast-feeding in Georgia, Beyonce has done so worldwide. Dr. Alison Stuebe, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told ABC News about the potential impact Beyonce could have on the idea of public breast-feeding.
"By bringing breast-feeding into the mainstream, Beyoncé can help break down barriers so that mothers and babies can breast-feed in peace," Stuebe said.
