Moms have the right, but public still frowns (Chicago Tribune)

Despite health benefits and 34 states' laws, public breast-feeding makes some queasy

JACKSON, Miss. -- The last straw for Evelyn Araujo was when the principal of the school where she was a volunteer walked over as she was breast-feeding her 10-month-old and suggested that she go home to nurse her son and come back when she finished.

Araujo went into a small bathroom at the school and finished nursing. Before the December incident, the 41-year-old mother of three had been like many other nursing mothers who sat on the sidelines and were made to feel ashamed for doing what they consider a normal act of feeding their children.

So when a group of health-care workers and advocates from the Mississippi Breastfeeding Coalition asked her in January to join their movement to lobby the Legislature to allow women to breast-feed at work and in public, she jumped at the opportunity. Araujo is one of thousands of women across the country who have led grass-roots efforts to change attitudes about breast-feeding in public and persuade state legislators to pass laws to protect their rights.



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