Upset moms petition Sesame Street to bring back nursing

Should "Sesame Street" Teach Kids About Breastfeeding?
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Parenting – Tue, Jan 10, 2012 1:58 PM EST

No doubt about it: Breastfeeding still causes controversy. In 2011 alone, a judge ruled that a woman couldn't do it in "his court" and under "his law," and Facebook deleted thousands of photos of mothers with babies at their breasts. Stores have thrown women out for discreetly nursing their infants, angry moms protested at places like Target, and any magazine that shows a nursing mother on their cover still sparks outrage, even if the woman is showing less of her breast than a bikini-clad model on the front of a typical fitness magazine.

Now, some parents are pushing to bring breastfeeding back to public television. Specifically, on "Sesame Street."

In the 1970s and 1980s, the landmark show routinely talked about nursing as a normal and natural part of childhood. In this clip from 1977, guest star Buffy St. Marie breastfeeds her baby while Big Bird watches. "See? He's drinking milk from my breast," she explains to the curious bird. "At first, when he was just born and very tiny, this was all that he wanted and all that he needed. But now that he's getting bigger, see, I mash up fruit and vegetables and sometimes a little meat, and as he gets older he'll need more and more different kinds of food to eat."