Mom hangs 'no breastfeeding zone' sign in her room to shut down shamers
By Mark PygasJune 24 2024, Updated 6:44 p.m. ET
A drone can deliver anything our heart desires to our doors within an hour and for some reason, breastfeeding is still causing controversy. Whether it's a mom who was kicked out of church for breastfeeding, or in this case, something a little different.
Meghan Koziel looks like a typical 20-something. Just over three years ago, she got married to her husband John and recently, the couple just had their first child together.
But there's far more to Meghan's story than first meets the eye. A few years ago, Meghan was battling aggressive breast cancer and undergoing chemotherapy.
As part of her treatment, Meghan underwent 30 rounds of radiation treatment and had a double mastectomy. In July 2017, she was deemed NED (No Evidence of Disease).
Understandably, Meghan just wanted some normality after all that: "I simply wanted to get back to living my life, being me, looking cute and feeling sexy as I always have," she writes in her blog. So, she opted to have extensive breast reconstruction surgery.
But when Meghan and John welcomed their daughter, Kendra Jane, into the world in 2018, she faced something quite bizarre. She had to deal with people asking why she was feeding their daughter from a bottle rather than breastfeeding her.
Unable to breastfeed after her double mastectomy, Meghan decided to design a "No Breastfeeding Zone" sign for her hospital room. The idea being that rotating staff wouldn't need to ask why she wasn't breastfeeding.
Meghan shared a photo of the sign on Instagram, where it quickly acquired more than 9,000 likes and hundreds of comments.
"Attention please, attention please," the caption of the image starts. "We do indeed have a mommy-to-be who had breast cancer and a mastectomy which means, without boobs in the houseeeee! Got the banner raised just in case people are confused at why we are NOT going to be breastfeeding our little bundle of joy. Yes I have foobs, no I do not have boobs (or nipples) therefore... my body is incapable of breastfeeding."
The sign attracted positive comments from moms across the world.
"The main thing is that your baby is fed,full, loved & cared for," one commenter writes. "I know plenty of ladies who exclusively breastfed as they strongly believed it was the only way then later fed their kids chicken nuggets, processed sausages & food full of preservatives and artificial colouring... each to their own."
Another added: "This makes me tear up, my story is SO similar to yours, I really could've used this sign, I assumed the hospital staff would communicate with each other but they asked me over and over again and it was pretty heartbreaking at that time for me. Thanks for sharing you'd story so openly, it helps."
What a genius idea.
Editor's Note: This story was originally published in February of 2020 and has since been updated.