> Rachel Myr wrote
> It occurs to me that it would be more apropos to inform people  
> about the
> purpose of breastfeeding, rather than advantages of it, or dangers  
> of other
> things.
8<
> Breastfeeding is necessary for the continued normal development of  
> the human
> child after birth.

A few months ago I was asked to debate breastfeeding in Swedish  
television, with among others, a well-known Swedish breastfeeding  
critic and feminist. Her mission is to belittle breastfeeding in high  
income countries; "you don't have to breastfeed, breatfed children  
get as many allergies as bottle-fed and it even might be dangerous to  
breastfeed exclusively for too long". She also says that Swedoish  
authorities promote exclusive breastfeeding in solidarity with low  
income countries and hints that Swedish women are breastfeeding in vain.

I decided to emphasize women's emotional choice of breastfeed. That  
most women actually WANT to breastfeed, if only they/we get the  
opportunity, with breastfeeding faciliating hospital ward routines,  
knowledge, support and maternal leave/breastfeeding faciliation at  
worplaces. Women don't make the choice of breastfeeding because there  
is a 21 % lower risk of overweight/obesity. Women nurse because they  
want to and/or think it's worthwile.

There is an Norweigan study on why Norweigan women stop breastfeeding  
before six months. Insufficient milk was by far the most common  
reason women ceased breastfeeding before 6 months. Only around 10 %  
ceased breastfeeding because they wanted to or due to work or  
studies. I applied the Norweigan study on Sweden as the countries are  
pretty similar. Counting on the Swedish national breastfeeding  
statistics showed that 25 000 women cease breastfeeding  
unintentionally before six months every year. That is a forth of all  
new mothers yearly! To belittle these wonen's desire to breastfeed is  
not confirmingor even soothing these women's pain, but undermining  
other women's ability to breastfeed successfully. And this has very  
little to do with this or that immunological effect.

(In the end I wasn't in the show, they chose someone else from  
Amningshjälpen.)

Marit Olanders
editor of the Swedish breastfeeding magazine Amningsnytt and  
breastfeeding counsellor in Amningshjälpen

             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
Mail all commands to [log in to unmask]
To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or [log in to unmask])
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet or ([log in to unmask])
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]