Breast Is Best — Even In Sacrament Meeting

Every January, babies are symbolically baptized during a sacred ceremony celebrating the baptism of an infant Jesus all those years ago. Overseen by none other than the Pope himself, the ceremony takes place in one of the holiest of holy buildings in Catholicism: the Sistine Chapel.

This year, 28 freshly born babes attended the ceremony as guests of honor to be held and baptized by Pope Francis. In addition to serving their role as symbolic reminders of Christ, the babies treated the congregation to an impromptu choral arrangement. Yowls, wails, and howls echoed through the revered building in cacophonous discord — complete with waterworks.

According to Vatican Radio, the Pope responded to the serenade jollily, explaining he considered Jesus’s cries in a lowly stable to be His first sermon to the world. The Pope went on to encourage mother’s to comfort their fussing children:

And if your children are crying because they are hungry, the Pope told the mothers present, then go ahead and feed them, just as Mary breastfed Jesus.

The Pope has oft spoken out in favor of public breastfeeding. As stated by the Washington Post:

During the same baptismal ceremony two years ago — in which he baptized 33 infants in the Sistine Chapel — he urged mothers to feel free to breast-feed their children if they cried or were hungry. The written text of his homily during that ceremony included the phrase ‘give them milk,’ but he changed it to use the Italian term ‘allattateli, which means ‘breast-feed them.’

Yet, despite the outspoken support of public breast-feeding multiple times by their religious leader, Catholic women around the world continue to experience resistance when attempting to breast-feed their babies in parishes and chapels alike. One woman reported that she was asked to leave after being told what she was doing was “inappropriate.” Another woman wrote on Christian Daily about her visit to St. Peter’s Basilica and being “whisked away by a security guard to the bathroom” when she began breast-feeding her son.

While the Pope has been vocal about his stance on public breast-feeding, things aren’t so clear cut in Latter-day Saint culture. The most recent statement on breast-feeding comes from the “Our Latter-day Saint Women”, published in 1979.

“Our Heavenly Father made the mother’s body so it could produce milk. This milk is made especially for human babies to drink. It is better for babies than milk from animals.”

So how do Mormon women feel about public breastfeeding?

Unlike the prejudice experienced by Catholic mothers breast-feeding their babies, Mormon mother’s generally feel comfortable nursing in public — including in sacrament meeting. A poll conducted by LDS Living in 2012 found that 54% of respondents deemed breastfeeding in public “perfectly normal”, only 22% said it was “awkward”, and a slim 24% felt breastfeeding was best done in private.

72% of mothers reported having nursed in public — 25% without a cover.

Unfortunately, LDS Living’s survey does not give us a breakdown of the respondents nationalities, identities, tax brackets, etc etc. Which means we’re left without a concrete number describing how much culture can affect a woman’s breast-feeding habits. But we can always infer.

Why does it seem that Mormon mothers face less criticism when it comes to breast feeding?

49% of Mormon families have children under the age of 18 living at home. Mormon’s also tend to be under