Elisha Wilson Beach has created quite a stir on the Internet. The wife of TV actor Michael Beach posted a photo of herself breastfeeding her child. It shouldn't be a problem, except that Beach was feeding her baby as she was taking a dump in the toilet.
Beach shared her picture on Instagram and captioned this with, "This is motherhood and it ain't always pretty. What's your #momtruth? #motherhood #motherhoodaintpretty #tmi #confessionsofamom #ididthat #iamnotsorry." The photo was then picked up by other users and then shared in different social media sites like the Facebook page Life of Dad where it received a lot of reactions. As of press time, the post has received 218,779 and was shared a total of 28,910 times.
Some of the members of the Facebook page, who are also parents like Beach, said that they found the photo "unhygienic," "disgusting," and "unsanitary." They were questioning why Beach would breastfeed her child while she's in the toilet.
However, there were also reactions defending the mother for her post. "I find it so interesting that people have an issue with her breastfeeding in the bathroom of her own home, yet way too many people have the expectation that a woman should breastfeed in a bathroom in a public place," said one user, whose comment received 2,707 thumbs up.
Mary Jane Minkin, M.D., who is a clinical professor at Yale School of Medicine, shared her expert opinion on the matter. "The act of going to the bathroom while feeding your baby isn't unhealthy for him [or her] because the germs from your bodily fluids aren't jumping out of the toilet," the doctor said via Closer UK.
In response to the whole brouhaha, Beach posted a statement on her own Facebook profile, which has been shared to friends. She writes in part, "Everybody complains that social media is full of people pretending to live picture perfect lives and I see so many mothers doubting themselves based on those photos. Well this is reality and so many mothers are doing this exact thing right now. Motherhood ain't pretty but then that's what makes it so beautiful," as published on Baby Center.
Even her husband, Michael, came to her defense saying via his Instagram in part that, "My wife is an AWESOME mom, a very intelligent woman and, most of the time [wink], the best part of my life! We know, as much as anyone does, what we are doing. Our kids are safe, happy, respectful & are being well trained/prepared for adulthood. We are VERY happy after 14yrs together (8yrs of marriage)."
What do you think, parents? Is this disgusting or is it totally fine? Vote on our poll below:
