By: Poelano Malema
1- 7 August marks World Breastfeeding Week.
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only one in four infants is exclusively breastfed until they are six months old as recommended.
Benefits of breastfeeding:
There are many benefits of breastfeeding for both the mother and the baby.
“Infants who are breastfed have reduced risks of suffering from asthma, obesity, type 1 diabetes, severe lower respiratory disease, acute otitis media (ear infections), sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and gastrointestinal infections (diarrhea/vomiting). For the mother, breastfeeding can help lower the risk of her suffering from high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, ovarian cancer and breast cancer,” states CDC.
Although breastfeeding has many amazing benefits, not all mothers can breastfeed. Due to various medical conditions some can’t breastfeed, some find breastfeeding painful, and others choose not to breastfeed because of family or job pressures.
Let’s look at celebrities who breastfeed their children.
Jo-Ann Strauss
South African model, public speaker and businesswoman, Jo-Ann Strauss is a firm supporter of public breastfeeding.
“Even if it offends you, I’m going to feed my baby whenever and wherever because it’s good for my child. If it offends you, look away. It offends me that it offends you, so there, we’re even 😋😍 I always cover up when I breastfeed in public. I have no intention or desire to flash you my boob. I wish society would be less judgemental of women who are doing the most natural thing instead of making them feel unwelcome or awkward,” she wrote on Instagram.
Rachel Kolisi
Businesswoman and wife of Springbok captain Siya Kolisi, Rachel, has made it clear that nothing will stand in her way of feeding her child.
“BREASTFEED everywhere and anywhere. Covered or uncovered,” she wrote on Instagram.
Ntando Duma
South African actress and television personality, Ntando Duma, is also a firm supporter of public breastfeeding.
Chrissy Teigen
American model and wife to John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, loves to breastfeed her children.
Zikhona Sodlaka
Zikhona Sodlaka believes no mother should be made to feel uncomfortable about public breastfeeding.
“Here’s what’s not going to happen, my baby and everybody else’s baby who feeds from the breast is not going to go hungry because of the strange comments made when a woman decides to feed her child,” she wrote on Instagram.
The actor said those who are against public breastfeeding should walk away or close their eyes.
“If it is uncomfortable for you to look at a feeding baby that needs to grow, then perhaps YOU cover YOUR eyes or you get up and you walk away,” she wrote.
“I don’t want to talk about how strange it is to not want to see a child feeding because we all know that in the beginning of your life you too had to suckle from your mother’s breast,” she added.
Image courtesy of Instagram/ @Zikhona Sodlaka


