A recent campaign (London, U.K) to normalize breastfeeding in public is making quite a noise. This campaign was initiated by Ana Balarin in 2017 to reduce the stigma around breastfeeding in open areas. She says, “I started #FreetheFeed to remove the shame and sexualization around it and to get people to accept breastfeeding and pumping as an inherent part of having a small baby. It literally comes with the package.”

About the campaign

To spread awareness on the importance of breastfeeding along with normalizing it, London is seeing massive inflatable breast balloons. The smallest one is 10 feet while the largest one is around 20 feet. These balloons come in different colors of the skin to ensure that the message is passed on without any discrimination.

U.K celebrates 26^th March as Mother’s Day and since that day these four larger than life balloons can be spotted all though London, making it hard to miss. According to UNICEF, UK has lowest breastfeeding ratio. There have been other surveys as well that state that British moms have hard time in breastfeeding their new born and they receive less support for same.

However, this year, Elvie, a U.K based fem-tech firm that actively advocates for breastfeeding moms joined this campaign to support Balarin. Tania Boler, the CEO and Founder of Elvie, told the Huffington Post UK, “The #FreetheFeed campaign is an invitation to everyone to stand with all those women that have felt shamed or confined when breastfeeding or pumping. We know the giant bοοbs will raise a few eyebrows, but we want to make sure no one overlooks the way that this stigma has been used to repress women.”

With the campaign gaining lots of eyeballs and shout out on social media, there is a significant hope to develop the awareness regarding the cause. Breastfeeding is quite normal and healthy for infants to grow healthily and to have a strong attachment with mother. The very fact that a basic need like this isn’t treated well is shocking and this campaign comes as the only hope.

You can catch all the actions it is generating on Twitter by following the hashtag #FreetheFeed!

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