When a proud husband posted a picture of his wife working out to Facebook, little did he know it would spark huge controversy.
Julius Kieser, an Australian personal trainer, shared this snap of his wife – and mother of six – doing lunges while simultaneously breastfeeding in a maneuver that he hashtagged, #breastercising.
“I caught Sharny multitasking today, Kieser wrote. “In public.” #breastercising,” The picture shows his 35-year-old wife Sharny exercising while nursing their 2-week-old son, Magnus. “I don’t get the whole breastfeeding in public problem,” Kieser wrote. “It’s not disgusting at all.”
But the comments the image generated on Facebook were far from kind. It turns out, very few had an issue with Sharny breastfeeding outside, it was the double-duty juggle that seemed to annoy everyone the most.
“Cut the multitasking crap for 10 minutes and enjoy the one on one time with your child,” one commenter replied in part. “We are/were all busy mums but I think our children deserve us to be completely in the moment with them.” Another added, “I honestly don’t understand why it’s necessary to exercise whilst breastfeeding? Is it even comfortable? Can you concentrate on doing the exercise properly?” A third simply asked, “Why?”
In fact, the comments got so offensive that Sharny herself had to defend her actions.
“A lot of people think it’s gross or strange or that I should be bonding with Magnus, but I feed six times a day, I’m not exercising every time and when I do I’m also watching the kids ride around on their scooters and play outside,” Sharny told the Daily Mail Australia about the controversial photo. “It’s not like I’m running or leg pressing or doing weights, I’m doing squats and lunges as they are the easiest things to do while feeding,” she added. “Then at night we sit quietly and feed.”
Sharny’s (pictured above while 39 weeks pregnant with her sixth child!) feels passionate about exercise, and has, in fact, written a cookbook inspired by her own journey losing the roughly 66 pounds she’d gained after carrying her first three children.
“I felt like a terrible mother, and that it was just going to be this way forever until something externally changed for me,” Sharny writes on her website. So in the 12 weeks after she welcomed her fourth child, she said she dedicated herself to getting in shape — and lost 52 pounds. “No longer was I afraid of exercise, I learned to LOVE it.”
Today, Sharny runs fitness programs alongside her husband, and loves to teach her children all about the importance of a healthy and balanced lifestyle.
What do YOU think, mamas? Is breastfeeding and exercising two things that should be done separately? Or is Sharny just one cool mama and fair play to her for being so committed to staying fit and healthy?
