Thousands of mothers across Britain took part in demonstrations last month in support of a woman’s right to breastfeed in public, after one woman was labelled a “tramp” for doing so.

Emily Slough, from Rugeley in Staffordshire, was photographed in the town centre breastfeeding her child. The photo was then uploaded anonymously to Facebook, accusing Slough of being a “tramp”.

Since the online attack, thousands of enraged mothers have taken to social media in support of Emily Slough. Her Facebook page, Free to Feed, now has almost three thousand ‘likes’, and is filled with messages of support for Ms Slough’s campaign.

“I have been completely overwhelmed by the amount of love, understanding and support I have received from all across the globe!”, she writes on the page, encouraging women to help her in her campaign to normalise breastfeeding in public.

All of this happened at a very ironic time for myself.

It was last Wednesday when, for the first time, I saw a woman breastfeeding in public. I was just leaving a politics lecture when I noticed the women sitting on a bench nursing her child. I cannot really describe how I felt at that precise moment. However, as I walked away, I dismissed it and thought, “fair enough!” with a chuckle. Then I began to wonder: is that right? Is that not, ye know, indecent exposure?

I immediately began double-tracking on that thought saying, “No, of course it can’t be. Breastfeeding in public is not illegal“. Nevertheless, I gave my Mum a buzz and put the question to her.

“No”, she laughed, “of course it isn’t illegal”.

And so, I let the instance lie. Until I saw Emily’s story in the Stirling Observor, which spoke of a demonstration that was to be held in Stirling that day (Sat. 15/3/14).

I was astounded that, at the same time as me, someone else had seen someone breastfeeding in public and (unlike me) had refused to accept it and felt it necessary to wage a personal attack on someone who – as I have found – was doing the most amazing thing she could for her child.

We have all heard the campaign for breastfeeding, with the old saying of “Breast is Best”, but what is it about breastfeeding that trumps formula and bottle?

“Breastfeeding is the biological norm”, states Dr. Rhona McInnes. “Breast milk, which contains more than nutrition, cannot be compared to the inert chemicals of infant ‘formula’”.

There are a great many documents accessible online in the likes of the Innocenti Declaration, which calls for governments and global organisations to “draw up strategies for protecting, promotion and supporting breastfeeding”. Indeed, in 2005, the Scottish government passed the Breastfeeding etc. (Scotland) Act, which states clearly the benefits of breastfeeding.

University of Stirling’s Professor Pat Hoddonitt provided evidence to the Bill which says, “breastfeeding offers children protection from a range of conditions including chest and ear infections, stomach bugs, obesity and diabetes”. It goes further to add that “Mothers who breastfeed also have a lower risk of ovarian cancer, breast cancer and hip fracture in later life”.

Research conducted by the Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors on Breast Cancer found that, for every twelve months of breastfeeding (either with one child or the total time for several children) women’s risk of breast cancer fell by 4.3%, compared with women who did not breastfeed.

Thus, we can establish, with evidence provided by a number of groups including the NHS and those conducted by Professor Hoddonitt, that breastfeeding carries with it many medical benefits.

Writing in Psychology Today, Professor Darcia Narvaez of the University of Notre Dame, claims that the skin-to-skin contact between mother and child releases the hormones serotonin and oxytocin, resulting in psychological benefits for mum and baby.

“The bonds babies develop with their mums due to breastfeeding leads to better emotional development and stability…[it] encourages a strong emotional bond between them”.

The benefits of breastfeeding are clear, so much so that legislation in the likes of the Equality Act 2010 and the Bill passed by the Scottish government have helped defend a woman’s right to breastfeed in public.

Why, then, did this recent incident occur? If we are to believe that breast is best, what makes people reject something which is sometimes necessary to do?

“Breastfed babies require to be fed at irregular and relatively unpredictable times”, writes Dr McInnes of Stirling University’s School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health. “For women to participate in society they need to be able to feed their baby where and when the baby requires to be fed”. Indeed, blogger Katharine McKinney echoes these words, arguing that motherhood can be a very isolating experience, and so breastfeeding mothers should not be discriminated against for nursing in public.

I asked Emily St.Denny, a researcher of public policy at the University of Stirling, what she felt was the cause of this sort of stigma being placed on women who breastfeed in public.

Health boards who seek to promote breastfeeding “have to fight pretty hard to get it accepted”, she says. “In Anglo-Saxon countries we have a body culture which is not free”.

“In France and Germany, for example, you tend to have a freer body culture”.

It did not take me long to remember my encounter with the “freer” body culture of our continental neighbours whilst on the beaches there. This leads me to wonder if it is simply our Britishness, our stiff upper lip and properness, which regards nudity as some form of aggression, that has caused some in our society to become very close-minded when it comes to public breastfeeding.

Both Emily and Dr. McInnes are of the mind that we have lost our association with breasts as having a biological function, and instead we are now at an “increased exposure to breasts as a sexual thing”.

“Breasts are there to feed children – that is what they are there for, that is what they will always be there for”, Ms. St. Denny points out. “We no longer see them as this. They are a play thing…consumer products”.

It’s disappointing that this trend is taking place, particularly when so much has been done to better right for those who are most at risk in society One of the organisers for the demonstration in Milton Keynes, Cydney Davis, relates a time where was approached by an elderly lady in a restaurant while she was breastfeeding and asked Cydney to go somewhere else.

“I asked the lady if she’d like to eat her dinner under a blanket instead. She just walked away and very quickly finished her meal and left the restaurant, but that was her choice.” When I put this scenario to Emily she painted it in a different light.

“Let’s take that and turn it into an African American man, and you have a woman going up to an African American man and saying to him: “Would you mind not eating here, please”. Nowadays, we know that’s racist, we know that’s not okay, and yet we haven’t come that far when it comes to other categories”.

Evidently, we have to become more accepting of breastfeeding in public. McInnes is right when she says that she feels this incident not only highlights issues surrounding breastfeeding, but “gender issues and judgment of women in general”.

What it boils down to is you and your perception as an individual. I admit I was, I guess you could say, emotionally compromised when I came across the issue face-to-face (if you pardon the use of the phrase in this context). The Breastfeeding etc. Act, 2005, gives a clear indication of who is responsible for enforcing the legislation it sets out: “Be prepared to offer assistance…Respect their space…It is the responsibility of individuals to ensure mothers who are breast feeding their children are not obstructed or interrupted in any way”.

“If you have a weird feeling towards a woman breastfeeding, that is on you”, says Ms. St. Denny. “That is on you to go away and think “why did I feel that way, and how can I help?”".

From all that I have read, all that I have seen and learned from speaking to people about breastfeeding in public, what keeps on cropping up is a renewed effort for increasing awareness. Emily St. Denny says that legislation can help in this way; informing people of their rights, and informing people so that, when they do come to complain, they can learn that women are at perfect liberty to nurse their child in public.

In challenging stereotypes and accepting womens’ participation in society, we have to be accepting of their choices. In the end, breastfeeding is a choice. The NHS, Unifcef, WHO, are all supporters of breastfeeding among many. A mother must choose what she feels is best for her child and, if that happens to be breastfeeding, then we must be in a mature enough mindset to accept her decision and allow her to carry out her role freely.

This does not mean being ignorant to it. We have to confront the issue at face value. As the Act details “Be prepared to offer assistance”. Be caring, and appreciate the wonderful gift that the woman you see on the bench outside your lecture theatre, or the young lady from Staffordshire is giving to her child; one that maybe your own mother gave to you.

So, next time you see a woman nursing her child in public, don’t stick your nose in the air and cast it aside. Simply accept it. Acceptance is the first step towards furthering the rights, respecting the decisions, and valuing the women and children of our society.

Ross Brannigan Political Journalist for Brig Newspaper