THE POWER OF MOTHERS

It was incredibly heartening to see the hundreds of comments in response to Dr. Miriam Stoppard's irresponsible and inaccurate article on breastfeeding - not only did she appear not to know the WHO code, but she referred to many beneficial and normal attachment parenting techniques that are known to have been practised by man throughout history and across the globe as "extreme". Here is a group of Dani mothers breast feeding their infants in the Baliem Valley, at Irian Jaya, New Guinea, Indonesia. (From Photographers Direct) - they know nothing of modern western parenting, and do what is natural and what feels right.

The TIME magazine cover appears to have provided the basis for her entirely subjective and reactive piece.

So, let's look at a couple of other images.. Here is, top, an image of a nursing dyad from Uganda (Mauro Fermariello, Sciencephoto), an older child looking into the camera - why is this shocking? Looks normal and healthy to me! Neither exploitative or extreme!
And then, the next beautifully adorned woman is an Embera Indian breastfeeding her child in the Soberania Forest National Park, Panama, Central America (Robert Harding Picture Library) - she is looking ahead, and not at her child - so is this unnaceptable?
Women of the world going about their normal parenting business, Dr Miriam!

And here I am with my daughter, several years ago, in a London park.
I doubt that any of us mothers thinks that we need to tell our children how to wean - they can do it quite capably all by themselves.

You can see the Mirror article and read the comments, here...
http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/when-should-you-stop-breast-feeding-1259599

Well done to all who responded with the facts!

We are really a strong and empowered group, showing that we can unite in force against formula manufacturers, aggressive advertising, and ill-informed opinion.
Of course, sometimes these are one and the same.

TIME

The image that keeps on giving...

So much ink has been spilled today - the TIME front cover showing a child breastfeeding  has been around the globe more times than Janet Jackson's nipple moment..possibly.

And, despite all the sniping and plain old strange comments about the mother's dress, her demeanour, her make-up, her stance, what cannot be denied is the publicity gained for normal breastfeeding. 

Ever since man first walked this earth, dyads have nursed every which way - upside-down, back-to-front, leaning,  sitting on a rock, swinging from a tree, twisting, turning, at night, in the morning....just, whatever, whenever.

The Time image is normal. It is out there. It will adorn coffee tables, surgeries, galleries, waiting rooms, newsagents...
It will be everywhere!
People will have a lot to say about it, doubtless...but, it will be there. 

Breastfeeding advocates have gained a lot of ground - but, ground that has only very recently and very locally been lost - we, the modern west, are the blip.

Let's celebrate normal breastfeeding, because that is what it is, and it has neither a special name, and, strictly, it is not part of a parenting style; no-one invented 'breastfeeding-until-a-child-slowly-chooses-to-forget-the-need', because it is what we, as mammals, as animals, have always done in order to survive.


Many, many people work hard every day to help with breastfeeding; mothers work hard every day to breastfeed, and so do babies and children - and TIME, in its own way, gave them 

all a hand....

...thanks TIME!