Model breastfeeds daughter while walking the runway, stirs debate

According to Mara Martin and organizers interviewed Tuesday on NBC’s “Today,” it was a spontaneous decision to breastfeed her daughter Aria on the runway. The debate over public breastfeeding regularly resurfaces in the United States, where women are strongly encouraged to nurse their babies, even though many return to work within weeks of giving birth. While all but a handful of US states give legal protection to mothers who breastfeed in public, much of society remains squeamish about the practice. Cases of women being asked to cover up while feeding babies in restaurants, in stores or on public transport sporadically make headlines in the country -- with “nurse-ins” held in protest to demand wider acceptance of the practice. In the latest breastfeeding-related controversy, president Donald Trump weighed in this month to defend women’s “access” to formula milk, after the United States was accused of seeking to torpedo a World Health Organization (WHO) resolution promoting breastfeeding. The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding until the age of six months, and partial breastfeeding for two years or more.