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Summary
This article highlights that breastfeeding is a natural process for every child, regardless of the location in which it happens. Stigmatising breastfeeding in public as indecent is sexualising breastfeeding and should stop.
A hungry infant begins to cry in a crowded park. The mother, sensing her child’s need, gently lifts her blouse and nurses her baby. Peace is restored, yet nearby, someone looks on with disapproval, labelling the moment indecent.
But what, exactly, is indecent about feeding a child?
Breastfeeding is one of the most natural, necessary, and life-sustaining acts. Yet for centuries, society has paradoxically celebrated breasts as sexual objects while shaming women for using them as nature intended. The idea that public breastfeeding is inappropriate or disrespectful is not rooted in morality or public order; it’s rooted in misogyny, body policing, and outdated social discomfort.
In a post on Reddit, a disturbing statement was made, stating that “Breastfeeding in public is tantamount to indecent exposure.” They argued it’s legally covered under indecent exposure laws, though commenters corrected that most legal systems exempt breastfeeding.
In nearly every part of the world, including Nigeria, public breastfeeding is protected by law or social custom. The World Health Organization encourage exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months, including feeding on demand, wherever and whenever the baby is hungry.
Babies do not operate on adult schedules. They cannot wait until mom gets home, finds a private corner, or locates a feeding room. Demanding mothers hide or cover up prioritises public discomfort over a child’s health and reinforces the idea that women’s bodies exist to be hidden or sexualised.
If a mother nursing her child makes someone uncomfortable, the problem is not the mother; it’s our conditioning. We have learned to associate breasts with sexuality and shame, rather than nourishment and life. But a woman feeding her child is not performing. She is not trying to seduce or provoke. She is simply parenting.
Telling women to cover up or step aside sends a dangerous message: that their needs, and their children’s needs, are secondary to everyone else’s comfort. This shaming also isolates breastfeeding mothers, pushing them into bathrooms or corners like outcasts, simply for doing what’s biologically necessary.
Let’s be clear: modesty is a personal choice, not a social rule to be enforced by strangers. Some women choose to cover while breastfeeding; others don’t. Both are valid. What’s not valid is using decency as a weapon to shame women into silence and invisibility.
There’s a broader issue here: when society labels breastfeeding as inappropriate, it reinforces the control of women’s bodies and choices. We see the same patterns in dress codes, purity culture, and reproductive debates. It’s not about what’s decent. It’s about who gets to decide what a woman can do with her body, even when she’s simply feeding her child.
Conclusion
Breastfeeding in public is not indecent; shaming mothers for it is. The real indecency is forcing women to choose between feeding their babies and avoiding judgment.
If we truly value children, health, and motherhood, we must normalise the sight of a nursing child, not hide it. It is not just a woman’s right, it is her child’s right to be nourished with dignity, wherever they are.
