Florida mother hits back at woman who judged her for breastfeeding in public

ASHLEY Kaidel calls herself a “badass breastfeeding (uncovered) mamma.”

The 24-year-old from Florida has made headlines worldwide after sharing a photo of herself breastfeeding her son in a restaurant, while staring down a fellow diner who shamed her for feeding in public.

“She is looking at me with disgust and shaking her head with judgment in an attempt to shame me and indirectly tell me without words that I am wrong and need to cover myself,” Kaidel captioned the photo, which has since been shared 120,000 times and received almost 400,000 likes.

“I don’t post this for attention. I don’t post this because I think everyone should nurse uncovered. I post this to give mammas encouragement. And to encourage others to make breastfeeding mothers feel accepted and supported; not alienated, ridiculed and judged,” she wrote.

Kaidel has encouraged other mothers to feel confident when breastfeeding their children in public.

“You should not ever feel shamed, belittled, embarrassed or wrong for feeding your baby the way nature intended,” she wrote on Facebook.

“I do this [share the photo] for the person that has the mentality: ‘boobs are to be covered. They’re for your husbands eyes only. They’re intimate. It’s a personal/private thing to feed your baby. Cover up out of respect. My kids don’t need to see that. Walk out of the room’ and any other derogatory, close minded comments and sentiments alike.”

Mothers breastfeed their babies in a subway in Beijing. Picture: Johannes Eisele.Source:AFP

She continued: “Breasts were made to sustain your baby’s life before they were made to bring pleasure to any other man, woman, partner or spouse. Their sole purpose is to make food and dispense it straight into a baby’s mouth.

“There is nothing weird about this and there’s no difference in me feeding my baby with my breast than you feeding yourself with a spoon.”

This isn’t the first breastfeeding photo to cause controversy this week.

Yesterday, a photo of a woman feeding her baby on the subway in China caused fierce debate on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter.

A passenger posted the original photo with the caption, “Let me remind you — this is a Beijing subway not a bus running in your village,” according to CNN.

In China, less than 16 per cent of women who live in urban areas exclusively breastfeed their child until the age of six months, according to 2014 data from the Chinese National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC). That rate increases to 30 per cent for women who live in rural areas.

Australian model Nicole Trunfio on the cover of Elle Magazine.Source:Supplied

In Australia, Elle magazine has run an extensive campaign advocating public breastfeeding. The cover of the magazine’s June subscriber issue starred model Nicole Trunfio, who was photographed for the cover of the June subscriber issue while feeding her son Zion.

“A woman’s body is so sexualised. So a woman can be in lingerie on a billboard with her breasts protruding out of bra, but a mother who’s fully clothed and being discreet can’t breastfeed her child?” Trunfio told Elle Australiaat the time.

“I think breasts need to be seen as non-sexual things. They need to be seen for what they’re for: feeding a child. In society, we’ve made women into this visual thing that’s used to sell.

“As a model I can say I use my body for that. I use it to sell products: clothing, lingerie. But we need to find that balance as a culture.”