Breasts are made for milk!

Ok, so this controversy over Babytalk Magazine is REALLY PISSING ME OFF!!!! The cover of the magazine shows a baby nursing from its mother's breast because the subject matter is breastfeeding. The breast on the cover is barely distinguishable as a breast because you can barely see anything. In fact, you can see more of a booby watching MTV or Desperate Housewives, yet, that didn't stop some people from completely freaking out:

Excerpt from CNN.com AP article:

"I was SHOCKED to see a giant breast on the cover of your magazine," one person wrote. "I immediately turned the magazine face down," wrote another. "Gross," said a third.

These readers weren't complaining about a sexually explicit cover, but rather one of a baby nursing, on a wholesome parenting magazine -- yet another sign that Americans are squeamish over the sight of a nursing breast, even as breast-feeding itself gains more support from the government and medical community."

Gawd this pisses me off! America needs to grow the hell up and start realizing that God made boobs to feed babies. A fact that seems to be obscured in American society by the infamous allure of breasts as erotic sexual tools meant to ensure the downfall of a moral society.

Again, from the same CNN article,

One mother who didn't like the cover explains she was concerned about her 13-year-old son seeing it. "I shredded it," said Gayle Ash, of Belton, Texas, in a telephone interview. "A breast is a breast -- it's a sexual thing. He didn't need to see that."

WHAT?!?!? If you treat a breast like a sexual object and the act of breastfeeding as sexual, then YOU'RE causing the problem NOT the photo. This mom is teaching her child that breasts are something to be ashamed of, that breasts are only sexual objects, and that breastfeeding is not a natural act. This woman is what's wrong, not Babytalk's cover.

Besides the fact that this infantile (no pun intended), sophomoric behavior is ridiculous and not generally found in other parts of the world, it also encourages a stigma against breastfeeding despite the scientific enlightenment that breastmilk is the single most nutritious source of food for babies.

According to the FDA website:

More than two decades of research have established that breast milk is perfectly suited to nourish infants and protect them from illness. Breast-fed infants have lower rates of hospital admissions, ear infections, diarrhea, rashes, allergies, and other medical problems than bottle-fed babies.

"There are 4,000 species of mammals, and they all make a different milk. Human milk is made for human infants and it meets all their specific nutrient needs," says Ruth Lawrence, M.D., professor of pediatrics and obstetrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in Rochester, N.Y., and spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The primary benefit of breast milk is nutritional. Human milk contains just the right amount of fatty acids, lactose, water, and amino acids for human digestion, brain development, and growth.

Breast-fed babies have fewer illnesses because human milk transfers to the infant a mother's antibodies to disease. About 80 percent of the cells in breast milk are macrophages, cells that kill bacteria, fungi and viruses. Breast-fed babies are protected, in varying degrees, from a number of illnesses, including pneumonia, botulism, bronchitis, staphylococcal infections, influenza, ear infections, and German measles. Furthermore, mothers produce antibodies to whatever disease is present in their environment, making their milk custom-designed to fight the diseases their babies are exposed to as well.

I'm definitely going to try my best to breastfeed when I have children. The only thing that would likely stop me would be if I were unable to stop taking Singulair for the time period I'd be breastfeeding. I think all women should be able to breastfeed whenever and wherever they need to as long as they try to be discreet about it. Unfortunately, I would probably avoid breastfeeding in public because I just don't have the patience to deal with all the jerkoffs out there who would have a problem with it. Fortunately, I would probably be a stay-at-home mom and would have the option of more convenient settings; however, most women don't have that option. Regardless, I think it's a very sad world we live in where people; in fact, other women, describe the scene of a baby nursing from its mother as "gross".