Friends Of Breastfeeding

f/7.1, 1/320 sec, at 40mm, 800 ISO, on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II

I was delighted to be invited along to a get together of the Friends Of Breastfeeding a couple of weeks ago in Collins Barracks in Dublin. While everyone chatted and ate delicious purple cupcakes made by Jo from Infantasia I mingled and took some photographs. Journalist Siobhan O’Neill White has an article about the group in the Independent today and one of my photos is featured. The group are really lovely and I think they’re striking just the right balance of encouraging and helping women to breastfeed but not pressurising or guilt-tripping anyone.

7 replies on “Friends Of Breastfeeding”

Lovely story and a great photo. I am surprised the Indo article did not mention La Leche or that maternity hospitals such as NMH Holles Street offer antenatal breast feeding classes. I think the horror (some people are horrified to see a person feed their baby in a cafe or at on a train) with breastfeeding has to do with the Irish people’s prudish attitude to nudity, bodies, breasts etc to begin with. All those generations of Catholic guilt will take a long time to flush out of our collective systems. It’s funny though, I wonder about these people who find breast feeding offensive – would they be the very sort to check out the breasts on display on a French beach for example! I think primary and secondary education is the best place to start to retrain our attitudes to nudity, body parts etc. If we all grew up in a school system with cumpolsory nude naked showers after gym classes, in communal showers with no curtains, we would all be more relaxed with ourselves! Being at a public swimming pool always makes me laugh, women still hide under their towels and make getting changed so complicated because they want to hide their “bits”. Until we become less repressed, breast feeding will remain somewhat taboo. Everyone needs to get over it. Babies need to be fed. 🙂