Plea for minister to pass draft breastfeeding laws
These laws will protect women nourishing their children in public
IAM writing in response to Chantell Witten’s article of July 21 and specifically to address the increasing scourge of public breastfeeding harassment. We need to talk about the public’s harassment of and discrimination against women who are just trying to feed or comfort their baby.
A few of us started a social movement two years ago, when a popular shock jock went on air and humiliated moms who breastfeed in public. We have since grown into a grassroots civil society organisation called Normalise Breastfeeding South Africa (NBSA). We are campaigning for new legislation that will protect moms who breastfeed in public and for extended breastfeeding support in the workplace.
We’ve been asked: “What is the big deal?” I even spoke at a workshop hosted by UCT last year entitled “Storm in a B cup”, quite ironic given the awful ordeal a mom suffered there a few weeks before. I’ll get to that.
The big deal is that it’s estimated that 38 000 South African children under the age of five die every year and around 13 000 of these children die from underlying malnutrition, directly related to poor infant feeding. These are the children of the most marginalised, the moms who don’t blog and use Instagram. Let that sink in.
And often it’s because of preventable diseases. Which is why breastfeeding is such an absolutely fundamental necessity. Breastfed children have immensely strong immune systems. Read up on the science and revisit Chantell’s piece for the far-reaching benefits of breastfeeding for these children, their families and our country. It’s is the inception of food security with multiple returns on investment.
These children die because, as a society, we don’t support mothers who breastfeed. We don’t prioritise the inception of optimum nutrition. To add insult to injury, we harass and discriminate against moms who feed their babies while they’re out and about stimulating the economy.
Which brings me to this question. How do we expect our economy to thrive when we are asking moms to stop stimulating it, drop everything and go sit in a filthy corner to breastfeed her hungry child? “But,” we’ve been told, “women can bring a bottle along when they’re out.” A bottle of what? Formula? Formula-fed babies cost our taxpayers millions in high medical costs. Human milk is what human beings thrive on. It’s the indisputable optimal feed for babies. Not some manufactured formula. The next question we often confront is “Why can’t mothers just express breast milk when they’re out?”
A lot of mothers face unacceptable challenges when they express, as highlighted by the recent incident at UCT. In case you missed it, Maggie Marx reached out to NBSA when she realised a colleague had been invading her privacy by live-streaming her when she went on a break to express milk for her son. Look at http://wordjedi. co.za/normalisebreastfeedingsa/ and http:// ewn.co.za/2017/06/29/uct-sacks-employee-forlivestreaming-colleague-expressing-breast-milk. Not such a storm in a teacup, after all.
Many mothers have not been educated and supported to express and many don’t want to. Not all babies want to feed from a bottle. A baby loves the warmth and comfort of its mother’s breast for sustenance and emotional wellbeing.
The next inevitable comment is usually: “Well then, mothers should learn to cover up.” Our response to that is if she so wishes.
We live in a vibrant, multicultural democracy. Why must we all be expected, as South African mothers, to conform to a patriarchal construct of breasts being only for sex? We have no shame in our bodies. In fact, we celebrate the love and nourishment we are able to provide for our children from our breasts. We will not deprive our children because society can’t stop itself from abusing breastfeeding mothers.
What have we become is a society in which it’s normal to see cleavage selling everything but the moment a baby is attached to that breast, a mother is shunned and humiliated. See our Facebook page for how often this happens. And we only know of the moms who have the privilege of access to social media. What about the marginalised? At this rate, how do we expect to have another generation of healthy adults?
Scientific evidence shows that mothers who feel supported in their breastfeeding journey feed their babies for the optimal length of time.
We need to support mothers to do the best they can and breastfeeding is the level best a mom can do for her offspring. That is why NBSA wants this new legislation. We need to create a society that says to the mother’s moral authority constantly being undermined. Our draft bills are in line with international legislation that fines and/or imprisons offenders when they harass breastfeeding moms. In countries such as Brazil, the UK and the US, these interventions have proven successful. Mothers who feel protected, feel supported and this results in more mothers breastfeeding for the optimal time – two years and beyond, as per the World Health Organisation’s mandate.
When breastfeeding is promoted, as our government does, and society comes to the party, it becomes normal. It becomes visible and the next generation breastfeeds too. We see significant progress in countries such as Brazil, Vietnam and Rwanda – countries with less economic development than South Africa but with better child health outcomes.
South Africa has made such great strides in other areas of health and development. Collectively, we can do so much more to support the breastfeeding agenda. After all, children are our future. We all benefit from a healthy, breastfed future generation.
The month of August kicks off with World Breastfeeding Week. South Africa celebrates Breastfeeding month in August. We call on our National Department of Health to urgently prioritise NBSA’s draft bills. Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s spokesperson was quoted in the Argus of July 10, 2015, as saying that the ministry welcomes the proposal of our bills and that they’ll see if it’s something that needs to be pursued further.
Yes, it most certainly is something that needs to be pursued further. So, on behalf of all breastfeeding mothers, we implore him to make good on that pledge, please minister.
We also call on you, South Africa, to please consider supporting Normalise Breastfeeding, so that we can continue to do the important work of advocating and effecting positive change for the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding. We are in urgent need of operational funds and you can also donate your expertise, time and your buy-in to take a stand against anyone who does not support moms breastfeeding their children as the evolutionary norm.
Anel Olsson writes on behalf of the Normalise Public Breastfeeding SA Campaign.
CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE AND THEY, MOTHERS AND SOCIETY AT LARGE ALL BENEFIT FROM A HEALTHY, BREASTFED FUTURE GENERATION.