World Breastfeeding Week: Celebrities who support breastfeeding

1- 7 August marks the World Breastfeeding Week. 

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only one in four infants is exclusively breastfed as recommended by the time they are 6 months old.

READ: Pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers get green light for COVID-19 jab

Benefits of breastfeeding: 

There are many benefits for breastfeeding for both the mother and the baby. CDC states them as follows: 

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.

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-Anne Strauss 

South African model, public speaker and businesswoman, Jo-Anne 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 Kolisi, has made it very public that nothing will stand in her way of feeding her child. 

"BREASTFEED everywhere and anywhere. Covered or uncovered," she wrote on Instagram. 

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.

Gwen Stefani

American singer and songwriter, Gwen Stefani, supports public breastfeeding. 

Cardi B

American rapper, Cardi B, is another celebrity who supports breastfeeding. 

READ: 5 South African celebrities who support public breastfeeding

Image courtesy of Instagram/ Jo_AnnStrauss