A few days ago we told you the news of a woman who was forced to cover herself with a napkin while breastfeeding her baby in the restaurant of a luxury hotel in London. The news generated a lot of controversy on the network and, obviously, also in London where it happened, causing the reaction of the "Free to Feed" movement, which fights against the discrimination of nursing mothers.
Women of this movement decided to make a complaint about it and for this they stayed at the hotel to sit outside and make a popular "tetada", that is, to get together with their babies and breastfeed in protest. And now it comes when I ask you, Is it a good idea to claim breastfeeding with a "tetada"?
Bravo for the fight
Before giving you my opinion, I want to praise the existence of this campaign and the ability of the mainstream mothers to gather and fight for a common good, the possibility of their children and those of other women they can eat where they need it. Because let's not forget, every time a mother is reprimanded for breastfeeding, a baby is reprimanded for eating. Can you imagine entering a restaurant and being told that you should cover yourself with a tablecloth so that others do not see you? Can you imagine they told you to go to the sink to eat your food? Well, that's what a baby is told when her mother is urged to cover herself or go to the bathroom.
There is no point in raising awareness campaigns about breastfeeding and it is recommended exclusively up to six months so that later, when babies are breastfed, mothers are told that they have to hide, making them feel judged and discriminated against.
But that of the tetadas…
Well, that's great for the fight they carry out, but I don't like the method. If the idea is to claim that breastfeeding is normal, natural and responds to a baby's hunger needs, I see no sense that several women sit at the door of a hotel to breastfeed all together. At that time, breastfeeding the baby may not be a real need for the baby, but the mother's decision to expose breastfeeding for all to see. At that time it stops being something natural and becomes something forced, a sign of protest, the mother's desire to breastfeed.
And I think that this should be claimed as what it is, and nothing more. A little over a year ago, Spanish mothers met in Primark stores throughout Spain and decided not to make a "tetada", but simply to get together to be seen. They wrote a letter and went to the doors to promote breastfeeding and explain why it is something normal, natural and something that the baby should be able to do whenever and wherever he wants. They read the paper and handed it to those who were interested in it. The babies who at that time asked for a tit, had it, those who did not ask for it, well no. It was an act of awareness and normalization, for me, much more logical than sitting down to breastfeed all together and let yourself be photographed.
But beware, this is my opinion and I may be wrong. The "Free to Feed" women's method may be more effective. What do you think?
