Breast-feeding can be a beautiful and important part of motherhood, yet many moms feel like they need to hide it due to societal pressure. Thankfully, these celebrity parents have no problem boldly showing off the intimate moments with their babies and helping normalize the parenting practice in public.
Pink opened up about getting heat from people while feeding her children in public when they were babies. “It’s such a weird thing that people have such strong opinions about breast-feeding. It’s a child, and it needs to eat,” said Ellen DeGeneres when Pink visited her show in 2017.
“Strong opinions about things that don’t affect their life at all!” the singer agreed. “I’m feeding my kid. Would you rather him scream? Because he’s very capable of that, too.”
It seems like moms can’t escape shaming on either side of the issue. While moms who breast-feed get hate for doing it in public, those who choose to use formula are often belittled as well. “Breast-feeding is hard AF!” model Iskra Lawrence said in July 2020 after welcoming her first child earlier in the year. “It’s not OK that so much pressure is put on women to be able to do it. Or that you won’t have the same connection [with your baby] if you can’t breast-feed — that is BS.”
Former Bachelor in Paradise star Carly Waddell agreed and revealed breast-feeding just didn’t seem to work for her. “I decided to stop breast-feeding [my son Charlie] and try him on the same formula [daughter] Bella was on, and within a bottle or two, he was so happy,” she explained. “He stopped crying. He could relax. He could sleep. He smiled. There is such a stigma about breast-feeding. If you don’t do it, you don’t care about your children’s health … But the one huge thing I found this time is that I made a really hard decision within myself as a mom to listen to my gut about what was best for my child.”
It’s true what they say — fed really is best!
Scroll through the gallery below to see Chrissy Teigen, Cardi B and more A-list moms help fight the stigma of breast-feeding.