Breast is best...is it?

‘Has the drive to promote breastfeeding gone too far?’ That’s the question that the ITV news asked viewers this afternoon, in the wake of a report by a sociologist claiming that the ‘moral crusade’ by breastfeeding advocates is undermining experiences of parenthood.

I was actually extremely disappointed with the article. Quite unexpectedly they didn’t have the author of the report or anybody to explain why we shouldn’t be breastfeeding our babies. They just had a very nice GP, Sarah Jarvis, who quite categorically said ‘breast is best’. So in danger of being shouted down for being a looney earth mother, for once I say 'hurrah to ITV!'

Dr Jarvis criticised the schizophrenic attitude British society has to breastfeeding – on the one hand we promote the health benefits for baby, but on the other we deny a woman’s right to breastfeed her baby when and where she chooses. It seems ludicrous, in a society where we see naked breasts exposed in all their glory in newspapers everyday, and women are forever being encouraged to ‘get your tits out for the lads’ – that when we want to get our tits out for our babies, we are ridiculed, shunned, moved on and labelled moral-crusading cranks. Why can we get them out for lecherous men but not to ensure the healthy development of our children?

What a sick society we must live in.

Come to think of it, if Britain continues to have this stuck up, sexist, disapproving, priggish attitude towards breastfeeding, then it will be a very sick country indeed. Babies who are breastfed have less gastroenteritis, fewer coughs and colds, less admissions to hospital for infection, and grow up healthier, less likely to become obese and more likely to avoid other common health complaints like asthma, eczema and heart disease. Look at it that way, and breastfeeding isn’t just an issue of personal choice, is it? It is a public health issue as well.

But hopefully there may be change. When they first discovered smoking was bad for your health, nobody listened, smoking continued unabated, smokers protected their 'right' to smoke, and public areas were choked with the fumes of hundreds of cigarettes for all to inhale. Now the realisation has dawned, non-smokers are starting to demand their right to a smoke free environment, lifelong smokers bravely battle through the pain of giving up, and smoking has become one of the biggest public health issues in the UK.

Whatever smokers try and claim – they can give up – and it makes the world a healthier place for all of us. Only a tiny minority of women genuinely can’t breastfeed, and in the majority of cases, difficulties can be overcome with the help of a trained breastfeeding counsellor. So when a few more people in authority realise that breastfeeding needn’t be a shameful and private hell - that it is in fact a pain free, cheap, convenient and loving way to protect the future health of Britain, perhaps it too will be taken up as a public health issue.

On 22 March this year a campaign was launched to protect mothers' rights to feed their babies in public in England and Wales. If you want to help improve the health of the nation, by backing this campaign, sign their petition.

Hey, and to all you mums and dads who haven’t made up your minds yet, another great benefit of breastfeeding – the nappies of breastfed babies smell much sweeter than those of bottle fed babies. Now if that doesn’t convince you when baby starts producing monster stinky poos at two in the morning, nothing will!