Breast is Best Unless....

I am still breastfeeding my 15 month old baby. Most people have stopped by now, and I am definitely starting to feel pressure, said or unsaid, from society that Isaac is shortly going to be past the age that it's acceptable to breastfeed.

He now has teeth! And can communicate a little. He can tell me when he wants it, (usually by pulling at my top, or something similar). He can walk. So surely, he doesn't need his Mummies milk anymore?

The often mis-quoted statement from the World Health Organisation is that wherever possible babies should be breastfed until they are 6 months. It annoys me when formula companies use this to suggest that after that, a bottle is better, or at least as good; and the implication is that breastfeeding after this point is unnecessary.What the WHO actually says is

"Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended up to 6 months of age, with continued breastfeeding along with appropriate complementary foods up to two years of age or beyond."

(http://www.who.int/topics/breastfeeding/en/)

 

For me, this is just one of the many restrictions and social boundaries put to breastfeeding mothers. Breastfeeding a baby is ok, but after that it's all a bit icky. And breastfeeding is fine if people want to do that in their homes, in the toilet, or covered up with a blanket or other appropriate garment, but really, do you have to get your boobs out in public?? We forget that breasts are just another part of the human body, as natural and normal as a hand or an arm; and that babies and children especially see them like this. Most people think nothing of giving a toddler a glass of cows milk, and in fact see it as an essential part to their diet, but many would think it wrong for them to get healthier milk, better suited to their digestive system and nutritional needs straight from their mother.

 

The advantages of breastfeeding are too many to list here, the arguments have been said and are not my point. It frustrates me that formula feeding has become the norm to the point that so many unsaid restrictions are put on mothers who choose to breastfeed. Less and less women are breastfeeding for shorter and shorter times. It has become unacceptable to say that breastfeeding is truly better for your child, not just in thier infancy, but later in life too; with less obesity, less diabeties, and higher IQs waiting for breastfed babies.

 

The damage is real and lasting. And if you restrict a woman from breastfeeding openly in public, you restrict the next generation from learning about it. You restrict them from seeing it, from accepting it as an option for their children, from seeing it as normal and healthy and good, and you narrow their choices. The number of women who grow up seeing breastfeeding and feeling confident in their bodies and in breastfeeding reduces, and so do the breastfeeding rates, while the health of our children, and the next generation, decreases.

 

In "The Politics of Breastfeeding" Gabrielle Palmer makes the point that although there is much talk of how low breastfeeding rates are, the really incredible thing is that so many women do choose to breastfeed despite being in such an innappropriate environment. She was talking about hospitals and the unfamiliar environment, surrounded by strangers when most women's breastfeeding journey starts, but I think it applies to the whole of society. It is amazing that so many women do breastfeed for any length of time, given all the challenges they face, from pressure from formula companies (which can be subtle and incredibly effective) to pressure from partners and society, from simply just the normalisation of bottle feeding.

 

When are we going to stop underming breastfeeding by focussing on the details that are completely unimportant, and start truly supporting it and upholding it.