IMO
Posted by: LizzieIn a perfect world, every woman would be able to breastfeed. In my perfect world, every woman would want to breastfeed their babies. I honestly don’t understand why a woman wouldn’t want to do what nature intended her to do.
There are a few things going on in the media that are making me furious.
The first is the reaction to Babytalk magazine’s cover this month. What’s the big deal? It’s an infant nursing! You can’t see any nipple (or it’s been airbrushed out), and the baby looking up at its mother in adoration–beautiful!
Now, an article is floating around on the internet that quotes several people’s reactions to the cover, and all of it is negative. I simply cannot understand how people can take offense to this. When it came out, the response from everyone in the forums I frequent was great! People wrote in thanking Babytalk for printing such a wonderful photo. Now that the negative feedback is coming in, the same people who praised Babytalk are now flaming the people who took offense. It’s my turn.
What kind of a person is offended by a nursing infant? It’s not sexual. Are some people so uncomfortable with the human body that they can’t even look at something completely natural? I’m going to go ahead and assume that these people formula feed their children by choice because they think breastfeeding is, and I quote, “gross.”
In my imaginary perfect world, every woman would be surrounded by and supported by women who have all “been there.” After a medically unassisted home birth, she would snuggle with her brand new baby day and night. She would have her mothers and sisters with her to help her learn how to nurse, bring her food, clean up for her, and make the hardest first weeks & months a dream. Yes, breastfeeding can be difficult. Yes, there are extremely rare cases of mothers who do not make enough milk. In my perfect world, formula would be prescribed like medicines as a last resort and not given out for free. In my perfect world, a woman can stay home on paid maternity leave for as long as she wants, only to return when she knows she can pump milk at work for her baby. Or she would be able to bring her baby with her if she really felt the need to work.
In the free copy of Babycenter magazine, they print mothers’ comments about a variety of different topics. Here’s the quote that made me absolutely livid:
“Breastfeeding helped me lose a lot of weight–I lost my stomach in a month. But when I woke up one day with one boob way bigger than the other, I just said, ‘That’s it. I’m done with this.’”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Your breasts are not the exact same size to begin with. And on top of that, they change size all the time during the first months of breastfeeding. I’ve woken up to the exact same thing but my reaction was, “Well, I guess I’d better nurse on the giant boob first.” They even out as the day goes on; it’s not like they stay that way forever!
I feel terrible for people who can’t nurse for medical reasons. But there are milk banks out there and so many women willing to donate their milk to mothers who need it. Instead of giving out formula, health departments should network with milk banks and help out these women and babies!
As for people who just give up on nursing because it’s “too hard,” I only wish there was a way to reach them and let them know there are people who can help. There are LLL groups all over the world and a HUGE amount of information on the internet.
Breastfeeding is not gross. It’s natural. For those people who take offense when my baby is getting the best possible nutrition and you’re shoving your face full of processed meats and greasy, tasteless vegetables, I want to say I feel sorry for you. I really do. But I don’t. You just make me sick.
Tags: lactivism
