An image of a breastfeeding mom has gone viral. It rapidly spread across the internet that it even inspired the hashtag: #boobsforBernie.
Elle Bradford, a breastfeeding mom of Barberton, Ohio attended the Bernie Sanders campaign rally last week in Cleveland with her 6-month-old daughter, Harper. While seated in the second row (just feet away from the Democratic Presidential candidate), Harper began showing signs of being hungry. Hence, Bradford ended up nursing her child in the middle of the cheering crowd.
So I was sent photos of me breastfeeding Harper at Bernie Sanders' rally... Making the most attractive face ever.
Posted by Margaret Ellen Bradford on Monday, February 29, 2016
"There is no, 'I'm feeding you in 10 minutes.' It's, 'I'm feeding you right here, right now, or you're screaming,'" the breastfeeding mom said to WEWS-TV. "A hungry baby is a hungry baby."
After the rally, Sanders and his wife, Jane O'Meara Sanders, praised Bradford and thanked her for doing what every mom should do -- taking care of their children every time they need a mother's care.
"After the rally, Bernie and Jane O'Meara Sanders both thanked me for doing what mothers do and taking care of my daughter when she needed her mom, even if that meant nursing in public!" the breastfeeding mom wrote on her Facebook page.
But what the breastfeeding mom didn't know is that the photographers at the rally captured her nursing moment and uploaded it on social media. Surprisingly, her photo gained more than 6,000 likes.
However, Bradford said while most of the comments are positive, she apparently also received a lot of negative feedback. For one, there was one individual who wrote her and told her, "I'm just an uneducated lowlife hick."
Nevertheless, many moms still applauded Elle Bradford's action and they have even shared photos of themselves breastfeeding their children. The story of the breastfeeding mom has also inspired a hashtag: #boobsforBernie.
While the photo of the breastfeeding mom sparked mixed reactions, Bernie Sanders campaign, on the other hand, supported Bradford by highlighting the photo in a recent tweet. He wrote that women should never be stigmatized for breastfeeding in public.
