Busting Breastfeeding Myths Hartford CT

Issue 132, September/October 2005
By Paul M. Fleiss with Frederick M. Hodges

Because young American women today grow up in a culture that bears the marks of decades of an officially orchestrated anti-breastfeeding campaign, to many of them breastfeeding remains strange and mildly disgusting. In earlier centuries, when families were larger, and before the relentless marketing of formula feeding, there was no mystery about breastfeeding—children grew up seeing their own mothers breastfeed. A young girl could watch as her newborn sibling latched on to her mother's breast, and could observe how the mother would switch the nursling from one breast to the other. She unconsciously noted the frequency of feedings. In short, girls received years of valuable lessons in how to be a good mammal without ever having to read a book or take a class in the subject. Today girls seldom have the opportunity to see their mothers breastfeed younger siblings, and boys, too, are denied this important lesson. I am convinced that returning our society to its breastfeeding-friendly roots depends as much on teaching little boys about the naturalness, desirability, and superiority of breastfeeding as it does on teaching little girls those values. Seeing women breastfeed in a variety of settings will benefit boys as well as girls. Those boys will grow up to be better husbands and fathers.

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