Lactivists: Your Time is Now!

This is outrageous! Women are being refused service when they’re breastfeeding. Barbara Walters made a negative comment about it, and now women are reacting. Thank goodness!

A New York Times article cites a statistic that 70 percent of women chose to breastfeed in 2003 (the last year for which data is available) up from 50 percent in 2000. What that doesn’t show you is how many women stop breastfeeding before 6 months, the recommended length of time for exclusive breastfeeding. Those numbers are still HUGE. The public pressure to stop breastfeeding and start using formula (which is still far from offering the benefits of a mother’s own milk) are great.

I believe asking a woman to stop breastfeeding is as bad as asking women to cover their heads in public. This is not wanton attempts by women to expose themselves, as one man quoted in the article suggests. It is a natural way of nourishing a child. It also happens to be the healthiest.

Babies who are breastfed are shown to be, on average, more intelligent than those that are not. They also receive much-needed antigens through their mother’s nourishment. Some researchers believe they grow at more natural rates and have a lower propensity for adult obesity, which may be its strongest selling point of all.

So please, even if the idea of public breastfeeding makes you squeamish, think what you’re asking the mother to do before you ask her to stop. You’re asking her to make her child less intelligent. You’re asking her to make her child less healthy. You’re asking her to make her child more likely to be overweight (and, linked to that, potentially have a higher risk for diabetes and heart disease).

No mother should be forced to accept those risks. Let’s protect our future now: encourage breastfeeding! And mothers, please insist on it!