Despite the ongoing and just campaign to normalise breastfeeding, Facebook is yet to catch up with the social movement.
Mother and businesswoman, Rebecca Wanosik posted a picture to the social networking site after she generously offered to feed another woman’s baby from – god forbid – her own breast.
Wanosik – being a busy mum and thinking she’d kill two birds with one stone – took the opportunity to tandem feed her own child at the same time, in an impressive display of multi-tasking.
Wanosik, being rightly proud of her fonts of natural sustenance, posted a picture of the feeding frenzy to Facebook.
In the caption she wrote:
The baby’s mother was having surgery and the baby is exclusively breastfed and refused a bottle.
When the baby arrived you could tell she was hungry and exhausted and just needed some milk.
I did what I hope any person would do for my child in a time of despair. I fed a strangers baby.
For some reason, rather than applauding Wanosik for her caring and generous nature – and, let’s not forget, feeding a young, hungry child – Facebook allegedly decided to deactivate her account, according to an angry post on Rebecca’s husband’s page.
Some commentators, who may or may have attended their biology lessons, thought the photo was unnatural and Rebecca’s actions were ‘very dangerous’ due to the possible spread of disease, reports The Mirror.
These comments reflect some of the negative and archaic attitudes society still hold towards breastfeeding in public.
Rebecca was surprised to see her selfless act criticised.
She also didn’t expect to receive floods of support from those who support the campaigns to normalise breastfeeding, and took to Facebook again to send out a message of thanks.
This isn’t the first time Rebecca has appeared in the media for battling against unfair social systems. Two years ago she made headlines when her children were taken away from her unjustly, after her 9-month-old with a misdiagnosed illness was wrongly thought to be the victim of parental abuse.
Wanosik has since set up a small business called Nourish and Nurse, which produces baked goods that are said to help breastfeeding mums produce milk to fund the financial strains caused by this family trauma.
Now that Facebook has reactivated her account, I wish Rebecca all the best with her future campaigning.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.