07/27/2025
🌿 Dear Church, Please Don’t Shame a Mother for Nursing Her Baby 🌿
By Laureen Michelle Gamba, Certified Doula & Childbirth Educator
By Grace Through Faith Birth Services
Faith-Filled Birth Support for Every Mother's Journey
I want to lovingly speak to something the Body of Christ must address with compassion and truth: No mother should be shamed, silenced, or secluded for nursing her baby — especially not in church.
God created a woman's body to nourish life. Breastfeeding is not immodest. It’s not attention-seeking. It’s not inappropriate. It is sacred, sacrificial, and God-ordained.
Recently, a dear mother shared with me that during church, she was asked by a pastor to cover while breastfeeding — because “young men don’t understand” and she should “be modest.” While I believe in biblical modesty and reverence, I also believe we must not confuse modesty with shame.
Here’s the truth:
✅ Nursing your baby is not a performance.
✅ It’s not a display.
✅ It’s not something to be hidden away in another room.
✅ And it certainly isn’t something you should be asked to do in isolation, apart from the community of believers.
When a baby needs to eat — they need to eat, sometimes constantly. Whether they are 3 days old or 13 months old, their need for comfort, connection, and nourishment is God-given.
Sending a mother away from fellowship, worship, or teaching to sit alone in a “nursing room” so others aren’t “uncomfortable” sends several damaging messages:
“You don’t belong here unless you hide.”
“Your baby’s needs are a disruption, not a blessing.”
“Breastfeeding is shameful and should be kept out of sight.”
“Young men can’t be expected to grow in maturity and honor women rightly.”
These are not the messages the Church should be sending. These are not the messages Christ sends.
Let’s teach our sons to honor God’s design. Let’s show our daughters that motherhood is holy and beautiful. Let’s be the kind of community where mothers are not segregated, but celebrated — where feeding a baby in love and reverence is as welcome as singing a hymn or reading a verse.
Isaiah 49:15 reminds us:
> “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.”
God doesn’t turn away from mothers or their babies. Neither should we.
To every nursing mother reading this:
You are not shameful. You are not immodest. You are doing holy work. And you have every right to be present, seen, and supported in the sanctuary.
With love and bold grace,
Laureen Michelle Gamba
Certified Childbirth Educator & Doula
By Grace Through Faith Birth Services
Faith-Filled Birth Support for Every Mother's Journey
