Women's fears about exposing their breasts are more than confirmed when North American women are arrested or asked to leave public places for breastfeeding openly. Thanks to the efforts of women activists, breastfeeding women are reclaiming their breasts as valued parts of their bodies and refusing to be treated as sex objects. Breastfeeding requires a new definition of women's work - one that more realistically integrates women's productive and reproductive activities. In the sexual division of labour, infant care usually falls to women. It is women who have the capacity to provide food for their infants, ensuring women's self-reliance and their infants' survival for the first few months of life.
Women give birth and produce milk.
If the work of breastfeeding is valued as productive work, not a woman's duty, then conditions for its successful integration with other activities must be arranged. These arrangements include legislation to provide maternity leaves and breastfeeding breaks, affordable child care, and other strategies developed by women workers. A woman-centred definition of work must take into consideration the importance of nurturance and caring, including breastfeeding. Within households, women often work together to share child care and other responsibilities. Other family members can play a useful role in assisting new mothers by providing advice on managing breastfeeding and helping with household tasks.