Pope Gives His Blessing To Public Breastfeeding

An article by Claire    Comments Off

Reports in the news today about the Pope Francis encouraging mothers to breastfeed during a christening ceremony in the Sistine Chapel will most certainly raise an eyebrow or two.

It is difficult to figure this Pope out. Originally pitched as a religious hardliner when he was selected he has since made softened remarks concerning homosexuality, “If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?” and has surprisingly been named Person Of The Year by The Advocate magazine, a publication actively supporting and promoting LBGT rights.

This Sunday, he encouraged the mothers with babies at this service to do the most natural thing in the world, breastfeed in public. AND Not just any public place, no, in perhaps one of the holiest Catholic places on earth.

This is a very important endorsement from the leader of 1.2 billion Roman Catholics world-wide. Controversy over breastfeeding in public is rooted in our attitudes towards our breasts as ‘sex objects’ and protecting a woman’s modesty stems from religious beliefs i.e. in Christianity directly written in the Bible. It’s important to say, not all predominantly Catholic nations or communities have negative attitudes towards breastfeeding in public, but there is still a battle of opinions in many nations, over the ‘decency’ of breastfeeding, baffling as it may be. We don’t need the Pope’s permission to feed in public but it certainly adds weight to the tired debate.

“Today the choir will sing but the most beautiful choir of all is the choir of the infants who will make a noise. Some will cry because they are not comfortable or because they are hungry,” he told the congregation. Such nurturing and refreshingly obvious remarks reminding us that breastfeeding is about nourishing our child. Their stomach’s are small, they are growing rapidly, so if they need to feed, they must be fed. Such a far cry from the Church environment I was brought up in where children should be seen, not heard or rushed off to bible class, while the parents took communion and bathed in the guilt of man’s original sin!

This was no forced PR stunt, no press release with the Vatican’s official views on the matter, so it leaves the world media to report and thus raise awareness of his message. The BrightonMums.com abridged version being, the Pope says, if you gotta feed the kid, for heaven’s sake, whip them out and do it! Find the news report and share, share share!

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Claire Jones-Hughes