Nurse-in at Expo Turismo Panama

Playa Community attended the Tourism Expo in Panama. Perhaps the most notable event took place on Saturday May 28, when a group of nursing mothers protested the event with a group “nurse-in”. A nurse in is when a group of women protest by breastfeeding their babies in public.

The workings for protest developed on social media when nursing mother, Sinara Abrego, published that two officials stopped her from pumping breast milk in the bathroom at the convention center, while she was was participating in Expo Turismo.

The message went viral on Facebook and Twitter and nursing mother showed their support by breast feeding in public.

Protests like these have taken place all over the world, largely springing up from viral social media posts. However, typically the complaints are against breast feeding at restaurant tables, not the bathroom.

Regardless of where the natural occurrence of feeding a baby takes place - at a public event, restaurant table or bathroom, an overwhelming majority of reports and articles show that most are in favor of allowing babies that are breastfed to eat.

Many states and provinces actually have laws protecting this right.

This Saturday a group of women demanded this right. Those who joined in the nurse-in at Atlapa carried banners saying:
“breastfeeding is giving my baby the best of me” “Feeding a baby is natural ”and “I do not ask you to understand me, but I demand that you respect me”.