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Controversial breastfeeding mom Tasha Maile is clapping back at haters of her breastfeeding videos and outspoken thoughts on parenting.
Videos by PopCulture.com
The social media star gained attention when she told followers she’s had sex while breastfeeding her baby. She then clarified the story on the UK show This Morning in July, stating that the baby was sleeping during the sexual act.
The mom of three, also known as “Spiritual Tasha Mama’, posted a video on July 18 to speak out about the hate she’s received lately.
“Let’s talk about why [breastfeeding] makes you feel uncomfortable and why it makes you feel okay to belittle me or to put me down as a human or that I am any less human than you are just because you feel uncomfortable with this, with breastfeeding,” Maile said while speaking to the camera, her baby on one breast and her toddler on the other.
“Does it make it okay to belittle somebody because you are uncomfortable?” she continued.
Many followers praised the mom for her candidness and work to ‘normalize’ breastfeeding, while others offered critique of her mission.
“There is NOTHING good/natural/beautiful about incorporating your own children (any children) into sexual activity,” one critic wrote. “Stop acting like the outrage is over the fact that you breastfeed!!!… Women have tried so hard to de-sexualize breastfeeding and you have set the entire movement back by sexualizing breastfeeding to the EXTREME. And you are using your own children in the process, all for a buck…”
“It’s ok but not for the kids to play with them [because] if u say they switching and pulling that’s freaking !! My opinion just as u have yours !!!,” another wrote of the way she encourages her kids to fondle her breasts as a baby-calming, milk-stimulating method.
Still, Maile is brushing off the negative comments and continues to create pro-breastfeeding videos. She posted a video on July 20 outlining why breastfeeding women should opt to feed without pumping for both bonding and convenience.
In her most popular video, the breastfeeding advocate recalls the times she made love while feeding her son.
“We are pleasure beings, we are meant to enjoy sex and pleasure and all things can be orgasmic,” Maile stated in the video. “I’ve had a lot people ask me if it’s okay to breastfeed and have sex. From what I remember, I remember sleeping with my ex-husband and my son was on me breastfeeding and we would have sex from behind or something.”
The mom of three boys added: “There’s nothing bad about making love at all, ever.”
But Maile isn’t the only mom to make waves for her thoughts and stories on breastfeeding. Keep reading to learn about other emotionally-charged stories about feeding babies.
Breastfeeding mom stands her ground:
Kayla Martinez was spending an afternoon with her two daughters at an indoor trampoline park in Texas when an employee told her that the staff had received four separate complaints about her breastfeeding. He assured her she could do whatever she wanted and offered her a separate room to nurse her 8-month-old.
Martinez wrote in a viral Facebook post that she declined the separate room and moved to a more secluded part of the park. However, that wasn’t enough for one of the women who complained earlier.
The woman scolded Martinez for sexualizing the young boys around the trampoline park by breastfeeding in public. “The woman went out of her way to verbally attack me,” Martinez told Yahoo Beauty. “She was enraged and began to degrade me, calling me ‘indecent,’ and saying that I was sexually exposing myself to her nephew.”
“I felt such shame for doing what should be considered normal and a beautiful moment between a mother and a child,” she says. “Breasts are for feeding your sons and daughters.”
Martinez waited out the rant, but says she “broke down” after the woman left.
“I had to be strong, not just for me but for the many other mothers that have gone through this,” she told Yahoo Beauty. “There is nothing wrong with your body, and there shouldn’t be a stigma in our society that breasts are meant to be sexual body parts for enjoyment. The reality is that they are solely for mommies feeding their babies.”
A 6-year-old still feeds from mom’s breasts:
A mother in London, England will continue to breastfeed her 6-year-old daughter Belle until she decides it’s time to stop.
“I’ll feed Belle as long as she asks,” the 44-year-old mother Denise Sumpter said to the Daily Mail.
Though she doesn’t rely solely on her mother’s breast anymore, the girl nurses anywhere from twice a day to once a week. The report also reveals that she sometimes joins her 18-month-old brother Beau in a feeding.
“I don’t think there’s anything weird about it. I feed both children on demand, whenever they want it,” Sumpter says. “My children have hardly been ill. Beau came down with something the other day and because I nursed him through it, he was better in 24 hours.”
The mother also discredits claims that her daughter is developing a harmful dependency, saying, “People think by feeding Belle this long I will stunt her confidence. But she is extremely independent.”
As for her son, Sumpter says he’ll continue to breastfeed as long as he likes. “The other day at playgroup Beau picked up a toy bottle and didn’t have a clue what it was. I was proud of that,” she said.
Victoria’s Secret Angel Candice Swanepoel speaks out:
Shortly after Victoria’s Secret model Candice Swanepoel welcomed baby boy named Anacã, she wrote an emotional message on Instagram about the struggles she has faced in regards to breastfeeding in public as a sexualized model.
“Many women today are shamed for breastfeeding in public, or even kicked out of public places for feeding their children,” Swanepoel wrote alongside a black and white image of her breast feeding baby Anacã.
Swanepoel believes there is a double standard forcing models and moms to question when and where they can breastfeed: “I have been made to feel the need to cover up and somewhat shy to feed my baby in public places but strangely feel nothing for the topless editorials I’ve done in the name of art..?”
“The world has been desensitized to the sexualization of the breast and to violence on tv…why should it be different when it comes to breastfeeding?” Swanepoel added, asking her critics to educate themselves on the matter.
See Swanepoel’s bold Instagram post here.
One mom shares her tragic breastfeeding experience:
On what would have been her son’s fifth birthday, one mom shares the dangers of breastfeeding after her son went into cardiac arrest caused by dehydration just 12 hours after taking him home from the hospital.
Jillian Johnson gave birth to healthy baby boy Landon in a “baby-friendly” hospital, meaning the hospital is geared toward encouraging moms to breastfeed their children.
Despite lactation experts telling Johnson that Landon “had a great latch and was doing fine,” the newborn cried constantly, unless he was on Johnson’s breast.
“Being a first time mom, I trusted my doctors and nurses to help me through this – even more so since I was pretty heavily medicated from my emergency c-section and this was my first baby.”
“But I was wrong,” she said. “I’ve learned I have to be my child’s number one advocate.”
Landon was losing weight every day, even though his wet and dirty diapers showed all the signs that he was eating enough. One specialist noted that Johnson might be having trouble producing milk due to PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), but her team decided for Landon to continue exclusively breastfeeding.
After the parents found Landon unresponsive, pulseless and blue after falling asleep during a feeding less than four days after birth, they called 911. Landon was rushed to the hospital and was then placed on life support, where he spent 15 days before passing away.
Five years later, Johnson is still dealing with the endless guilt and questions what her life would look like now if she had just known to give Landon a bottle.
“I still have many, many days of guilt and questions – what if I would’ve just given him a bottle? And anger because how would I have known. […] But I didn’t know. I should’ve known. I still struggle daily feeling as though I failed him.”
“The best advice I was given by one of his NICU doctors while he was on life support is sure breast is best, but follow with the bottle,” Johnson said.
