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World Breastfeeding Week: Kristen Bell feels it's 'comical' that people are against feeding in public

Bell said, 'It's boobs. It’s another part of your body that has skin. Boobs don’t provide the shock and awe to me that they do for some people'

Women have been at the receiving end of criticism for numerous reasons, even while they're practically trying to provide nourishment to their toddlers. People need to realize that there is no particular feeding pattern -- a baby needs to be fed when it needs to be fed. Societal judgment has been stripping toddlers and their mothers of this basic right by stigmatizing this natural process since times immemorial. However, a lot of celebrities and other popular people have been using their voices to normalize breastfeeding and one among them is someone who the Internet loves to address as 'mom' -- Kristen Bell. 

Bell is a mother to two daughters: Delta and Lincoln. In 2013, she tweeted a photo showing people that she was fulfilling her mommy duties backstage ahead of the 2013 CMT Music Awards that she was hosting. 

Bell has always spoken candidly about being mom-shamed but she doesn't understand the hullabaloo around public breastfeeding. "It's boobs. It’s another part of your body that has skin. Boobs don’t provide the shock and awe to me that they do for some people. It’s comical that people are against feeding in public,” she told CafeMom in 2017. Further adding that nothing will ever deter her from being a mom and nourishing her child, she said, "If it makes you uncomfortable, it’s your responsibility to move away, not mine to cover up. I don’t care where I’m breastfeeding. It never crossed my mind. What crossed my mind is: ‘Was my child hungry?'”.

She also dispensed a very important tip for mothers around the world as to how they could tackle mastitis. It is an inflammation of the breast that may be triggered by a clogged milk duct and it can make breastfeeding really painful. This can also result in an infection in some women which causes painful lumps on the breast and/or causes flu-like symptoms, such as nausea and fever. In an interview with Mom.com, Bell opened up the time she developed the condition right after she had stopped nursing and was stuck in Atlanta with no access to her doctor. She turned to her husband Dax Shepard and asked him to suck it out and relieve her agony.

"So I said to my husband, 'I'm going to need you to suck this out. We can talk about it, we can be weird about it, or you can just go ahead and do it'" she said. Bell also added that she and Dax found nothing gross about the latter sucking her milk out and spitting the "liquid gold" out in a cup because there is nothing to be grossed out about. "(Breastfeeding) is your superpower. You are doing something extraordinary! You are able to make another human being survive with this liquid gold," she said in conclusion about the life-sustaining breast milk. 

August 1-7 is World Breastfeeding Week and with this column, we highlight the journey of celebrity moms who advocate normalizing breastfeeding.