This super model is no role model

This one takes the cake! In an interview with US Magazine.com, super model, Gisele Bundchen, says that not only is breastfeeding essential but that it should be an international law!  Yes, you read that right.  Mrs. Tom Brady wants a law mandating women around the world breastfeed.  Of all the gall! What I really want to say is "who the hec is she to preach what I should or shouldn't do?"

But I'll refrain.

Part of me also wants to yell, "what about all the women who can't breastfeed?" or "What about all the women who have to go back to work and whose workplaces aren't pumping-friendly?"

But I'll refrain.

The idea of government mandating how a woman should feed her child is beyond ridiculous.  There are many other ways government should act if it wants to increase breastfeeding rates: mandate paid maternity leaves, extend maternity leaves to longer than 3 months, mandate that workplaces provide clean, private places to pump.  Maybe Gisele, (may I call you that?), you should talk to women who have had cancer and are undergoing treatment that doesn't allow them to breastfeed?  Or perhaps they've had their breasts removed for medical reasons and can't breastfeed.

But I digress.

Not surprisingly the comments to the Bundchen article have come fast and furiously, and they are mainly negative.

The fury over her suggestion is valid.  How a woman chooses to feed her child is just that: a choice.  There is no right or wrong choice.  Every woman's situation is personal, different and specific to her, and the dynamics of her family.

(In Gisele's household, i'm guessing there is help around the house.  I'm also guessing she's not throwing clothes on at 6 am, making lunches for kids who are trying to get out the door, making breakfast at the same time, while doing laundry, loading the dishwaasher and countless other things simultanously,that normal mothers are doing.  So to impose her morals on others is a joke.)

No one has a right to judge or make others feel guilty.

One would think that as a super model who's on the cover of magazines every other month and who has the ability to be a visible international role model, Gisele would hopefully be smarter than this.  She could use her fame to promote choice and to show women everywhere choice is important.  She could help them understand that what's right for some doesn't work for others, but that that doesn't make one a bad mother.

Perhaps there should be a law against nurturing guilt.  Then Gisele, my friend, you're guilty as charged.

What do you think of Gisele's comment?  Log onto our Forum to debate and discuss the issue.  And cast your vote below for whether or not you think there should be a law forcing women to breastfeed.