A breastfeeding mother with her baby. UNICEF UK’s Baby-Friendly Initiative works with health professionals and health-care facilities to support and promote breastfeeding. UNICEF photo/ Jill Jennings
We have reached a tipping point. In less than a century, breastfeeding has become the exception rather than the rule—a devastating trend to the health and well-being of large segments of the world population. Increasing the rates and duration of breastfeeding could save the lives of 1.4 million babies. It could also help national and local governments, in both developing and developed countries, to achieve the health-related United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
It is time to shed the dogma and take a fresh look at how breastfeeding can fit into our modern life. A culturally sensitive model needs to evolve where the mother is in charge of her body and fully engaged in her breastfeeding experience. Breastfeeding and life are not mutually exclusive: it is not about making choices, nor is it a science; it is about coaching and empowerment, not cheerleading. We need to take a look at the brilliance of formula marketing and steal their thunder. Controversy and romanticized depictions of a breastfeeding lifestyle have not inspired women to take up breastfeeding in lieu of formula feeding. What is needed is practical and empowering support for the mother so she can own her body and revel in the ability to nurture her baby.
Conscious Breastfeeding, a term that I have coined, embodies clinical observations and experiences supporting breastfeeding in a bottle-feeding, formula-centric culture. Although breastfeeding is natural, it is a learned skill: the mother needs to teach her baby to have a deep, comfortable latch. She needs to take full responsibility for the quality and ongoing optimization of her breastfeeding experience, which should absolutely not hurt.
Throughout the last half century, the prevailing misconception has been that babies are born knowing how to breastfeed. This may be true to some extent: they are instinct driven and their will to survive inspires them to keep alive by clinging to, and obtaining food from their mother. However, not every baby can figure out the intricacies of a great latch. The quality of a latch described as “good enough” may not be sustainable for a modern mother, or her doctor. Over the past three decades, my appreciation of this fact has evolved. The synchronicity between baby, breast and brain—the hormonal circuit—has always put the focus on the baby. The baby does drive the system but does not understand all the variables. Not every baby knows entirely what is best for them. They can either overfeed or underfeed, and when given such latitude, their rhythms of waking, sleeping and eating often cause them to become fretful and fussy.
Babies and breasts are not generic. You can be more stringent with a non-variable, less easily-digested food source, such as formula. Breastfeeding, by virtue of its variability in both definition and constitution, is therefore not something that can be easily standardized, unlike formula. To have any hope of a consistent approach and outcome, the focus needs to be on achieving an optimized latch so that maximum calories are delivered in a comfortable rhythm for both mother and child.
Ask someone to define breastfeeding and you will get many answers, which often cloud arguments both for and against the practice. Generalizations are made in breastfeeding management that cannot possibly include the majority with such a vague definition of what it means to breastfeed.
Who is in charge? The current party line is the baby. This flies in the face of reality and basic survival. Why would any baby willfully refuse food from the onset? They do not know their mother has “choices”. Clearly unable to do anything on its own, a baby relies upon its mother for nurture. This includes, but is not limited to, breastfeeding.
Conscious breastfeeding mothers understand that the breast is a source of food for their baby. They feed with intention. They are fully engaged in each feeding. The loving arms of mother, father, family members and other caretakers will happily hold their babies between feedings.
