With Just 1 Photo, This Proud Breastfeeding Mom Took a Public Stand Against Haters

Ashley Kaidel considers herself a "badass breastfeeding (uncovered) mama," and we have to agree!

The 24-year-old mother of two from Florida is taking a potentially belittling moment and using it as an opportunity to empower other nursing moms. After someone gave her a nasty look at a restaurant as she breastfed her son, Ashley decided not only to continue the public feeding but to look back defiantly at the patron.

"In the picture, it appears I'm staring off into the distance," Ashley wrote on Facebook. "In reality, I'm staring into the eyes of a woman staring at me," she wrote. "She is looking at me with disgust and shaking her head with judgment in an attempt to shame me and indirectly tell me without words that I am wrong and need to cover myself."

The point of Ashley's post is not to say that every mother should show the world her breasts — she completely supports a mother covering herself up if she feels better doing so — but instead it's for the mother who tried breastfeeding uncovered once and got shamed, pointed at, asked to leave the room, or asked to cover up.

Ashley hopes that her experience will keep other mothers from feeling embarrassed or wrong for feeding their baby. She believes that it's a woman's right to decide whether she wants to nurse her child uncovered, and considering that local laws in 49 states allow women the right to breastfeed in public, she feels strongly that no woman should feel ashamed for making this decision.
"Breasts were made to sustain your baby's life before they were made to bring pleasure to any other man, woman, partner or spouse. Their sole purpose is to make food and dispense it straight into a baby's mouth," Ashley wrote. "There is nothing weird about this and there's no difference in me feeding my baby with my breast than you feeding yourself with a spoon."