You’ve just given birth. Your head is all over the place. You are physically and emotionally exhausted. And before you have a chance to try to think straight, you’re being asked if you’re breastfeeding or not. And if not, why not?
If that sounds familiar, join the club.
I tried to breastfeed when I had my first baby boy. But I discovered quickly that it wasn’t for me.
My son was born five weeks early. I was unwell and had no energy. Bottle feeding was 100% a no brainer for me.
Yet I still felt that I was being talked into giving breastfeeding another go, long after I had come to my decision.
I know this all comes down to personal choice. I admire those people who are naturals at breastfeeding. But I also know I wasn’t one of them.
I’ve been thinking about it this week after new research was published, suggesting children who were breastfed for longer are more likely to do better in
exams.
The people behind the study concluded that breastfeeding improves “cognitive development” since breast milk contains polyunsaturated fatty acids and micronutrients, which enhance neurodevelopment.
That sounds to me like a lot of big confusing words. Maybe even another of these attempts to brainwash people into thinking they’re letting their baby down if they don’t breastfeed them.
I remember crying one day when a midwife was trying to speak to me about giving breastfeeding another go.
I’m not criticising midwives. They do a fabulous job. But the pressure on women to breastfeed can be intense and studies like this just pile on the pressure.
And when I read a little deeper into the latest research it raised more questions than answers.
Exams success can’t all be down to breastfeeding
A lot of people pointed out that there are plenty more studies that show better-off women are more likely to breast-feed, and that children from better-off families are more likely to succeed in exams.
Maybe the environment a pupil grows up in has more to do with how well they do in school than whether or not they were breastfed 16 years earlier?
You could literally do the same study which said that privately educated children are smarter, that children of people who have range rovers are smarter, that children who eat organic food are smarter, that children who go to Tuscany every summer are smarter, I could go on.
— Rebecca Reid (@RebeccaCNReid) June 6, 2023
There’s no doubt that breastfeeding has many benefits.
The NHS recommends that mothers who are able to should breastfeed their babies for six months before moving to a combination of breast milk and normal food.
But it’s your body, your baby, your choice and nobody should try to tell you different.
My two were bottle fed and they have turned out perfectly fine, just like me (although some may debate that I have ‘turned out ok’).
And it’s time we stopped putting pressure on women, and started trusting them to make the right choices for their babies and their circumstances.
Looking after a newborn when you’re tired and drained is a task in itself. You don’t need guilt thrown into the mix.
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