ferrousland.com - news archives
Thursday, July 17, 2008 - (see all news for this day)
breastfeeding is not a perversion - 08:54 AM
(filed under 'healthy living')
i'm on a yahoo group for extended breastfeeders. 'extended' (sadly) can cover anything from continuing for longer than six months to one year.
one lady recently wrote a long post about how she can feel that she's taking on the guilt given to her by others for planning to breastfeed her child for as long as four years if he wants to go that long.
this woman is in america. almost all .. no, actually, all of the stories i've heard (stories spread widely by the media or just personal stories told privately in the extended breastfeeding group) have come from america. it really seems to be the only place in the world where people have this weird attitude about a mother feeding her child the way nature intended.
yes, there are plenty of women here (in australia) who choose to formula feed their children, so it's not like we've never seen a bottle here, but there is rarely seen any of that bizarre attitude that there's something wrong, weird, or perverted about a child breastfeeding.
america is looked up to by much of the world. so many places in the world are mirroring the attitudes, the look, the fashions of america, instead of breeding their own culture. mainly it's the youth who seem to have this attitude, but those youth then grow up & keep much of that attitude. are other places in the world going to follow this strange belief that there's something wrong with breastfeeding a child? i certainly hope not.
the people of the usa are renowned for their hospitality, for how welcoming & warm they are. does it maybe stem from this? perhaps the effort to welcome others & to not offend is taken too far, to the point that no one dares to do anything slightly differently to anyone else lest the other party is offended? this whole political correctness movement originated in the the united states. yes, it's a good thing to not single people out in a bad way, but for crying out loud, things can be taken too far. almost anyone who's aware of how far politcal correctness has gone, knows that it's gone way, way into the realm of the ridiculous.
as far as breastfeeding in public (or even in private) is concerned, the more that people feel they need to hide it (or stop it), the more it will become some strange thing that people feel is wrong or shameful.
those who are breastfeeding their children need to rail against this poisonous attitude & go out & feed their children proudly in public. don't use a silly cover to just prove your shame. i'm not saying that you should go out to your local mall & lift your shirt over your head with both hands to display your breasts to the general public at large. i'm just saying that the more that people see this normal part of life, the more it will become normal.
it's times like this, when i read about people being made to feel guilty about doing the very best thing they can for their child, that i'm so glad i wasn't born in america. i would hope that even if fate had caused me to be born to american parents, that i would still have the attitude of a non-follower & that i would still be as individual as i am, & still be happy to be breastfeeding smiley at almost five years old.
there is nothing wrong, that a mother gives bf to her kids. it is a dissision made by the mother
every situation is different and personal. I pass by breastfeeding mothers all of the time here in the US. In fact, I found that it is more accepted in public than it was when I was a child. If I had seen breastfeeding in a public place when I was younger, I would have been surprised. Not disgusted at all, just very shocked. My children pass it by now like a normal event, with not a blink or a flinch. I suspect that some bf mothers here are merely reflecting on a past attitude when they grew up, and sensing an attitude that may not be there at all today. Of course, you're always going to find those people who like to make a federal issue over anything they can find...it's their nature.
I'll get on the soap box... for a moment...
Kathy is correct that many of the anti-BF crowd are American. It appears they mistakenly think the breast is some sort of lewd sex object.
Outside of American, breastfeeding is the norm rather than the exception. They major reason for the reversal goes back to WWII when women went to work in factories to support the war effort. Since many places did not provide on-premises childcare, they resorted to storing breastmilk in bottles and later popped the bottle on the child (often from a harried sitter).
As time went on someone got the idea to 'supplement' breast milk, and created the industry of baby formula in America and breastfeeding went into sharp decline.
some text ads:
Homeowner Loan - Renegade motorhomes - New York Hotels - Debt Help
ferrous
gmail
com
I am not sure I agree that all the radical anti-bf'ers are Americans (I've come across a few in Oz) but otherwise, spot on, Corri. Well said. I would have been so happy to bf my kids past the 16 months and 20 months respectively that they self-weaned, but at least the choice was theirs and they did it when they were ready.