Immediately after church last week a dear older woman walked up to me and said, “You’re not still nursing her, are you?” Her tone was full of accusation and condemnation and her opinion was clear: If I was still putting my fourteen-month-old daughter to breast, I was completely deranged and likely damaging my daughter as well.
As a breastfeeding advocate, I should have confidently replied, “Yes, and I’m proud of it because it’s the best thing for my baby.” Instead, I found myself completely defensive. I actually felt as though nursing my daughter at her age might be wrong. I delayed answering her and then fumblingly started to say, “Oh, it’s just for comfort…” She cut me off and went on to say something like, “Oh, my husband’s mother did that with her youngest. She nursed him until he was two or three. It was just sick, they don’t need that.” and abruptly walked away.
If that exchange had taken place after I had my first baby, I would have been traumatized. I was so insecure about breastfeeding and my opinions about what was “healthy” and “normal”. However, with the birth of my second child I found myself reading extensively and even getting involved in a local breastfeeding support group. I began to recognize the cultural trends in breastfeeding in this country. The sad fact (in my opinion) is that for decades in this country women were given injections immediately following delivery (no consent obtained) to dry up their milk. Bottle feeding wasn’t just the norm, it was practically forced on women. Formula has been touted in the past to be just as good for baby, and even better for mom, than breast milk. Thankfully, women today have better-educated themselves and more and more women are taking advantage of the wonderful opportunity to breastfeed.
Though I failed my “Security With Breastfeeding” test the other night at church, my resolve is unwavering. Instead of bowing to social pressure to stop breastfeeding at a certain time, I will let my daughter and I decide what’s right for us. Who knows, maybe in a few decades the prevailing opinion will be, “You’re daughter’s fourteen-months-old, you haven’t weaned her yet, have you?”
For more great articles on breastfeeding, please see:
The Cost of Breastfeeding Intervention Vs. Formula Feeding
Should I Wake My Baby to Breastfeed?
For more articles from this blogger, please see:
5 Tips for Having Devotions With Toddlers
How to Handle Those Crazy Sunday Mornings