World Breastfeeding Week: Charlie O'Brien blog

You may or may not know that this has been World Breastfeeding Week.

I’ve had a quick look around a few parenting forums this week and been surprised that a lot of mums are offended that such weeks exist. Their argument is that it discriminates against mums who can’t, or choose not to breastfeed.

I disagree.

There is very little money dedicated to supporting and promoting breastfeeding, simply because there isn’t a profit-making company behind it as there is with formula feeding. It is not advertised on TV or in magazines.

You don’t see a pair of lactating boobs sitting on the shelf in your local chemist when you pop in to get your baby stuff.

I can’t remember a time when I’ve opened a parenting magazine and seen a full-page advert featuring a picture of a mother nursing her child. But it’s the norm to see tins of follow on milk and bottles advertised and promoted everywhere you go.

National Breastfeeding Week and World Breastfeeding Week are just two very small opportunities in the year for breastfeeding to be talked about and promoted - and more importantly, to be normalised.

Before I get called a 'breastfeeding Nazi' – I want to make clear that I am not. I am sensitive and wise enough to believe and understand that not all women can breastfeed. I’ve been there myself.

My first three months of feeding were pure hell at times and I am thankful that I was able to overcome the hurdles with certain support and go on to feed my son for 16 months.

We used formula for the first few days of Noah’s life while I was sorting myself out.

'But, here comes the but! There is an issue with breastfeeding in this country.'

I am so grateful that I live in a country where good formula is readily available and safe to make up. We are extremely lucky. I will always be thankful and wouldn’t hesitate to use it for future babies.

But, here comes the but! There is an issue with breastfeeding in this country. We have some of the lowest nursing rates in the developed world. It has become so far removed from the norm that we question it.

We question it when a mother chooses to feed her hungry baby somewhere other than the home. We question and criticise when a woman dares to show a bit of flesh with her hungry baby attached – even though we happily accept endless images of women in underwear and bikinis used for advertising every single day.

We question it when a mother chooses to feed her child beyond the age of six months – despite the World Health Organisation recommendation being two years.

We question it when a nursing mother dares to tell anyone she’s tired from feeding through the night, and then tell her that she should give up and give bottles instead.

Rather than celebrating, supporting and normalising breastfeeding - as a society we are generally marginalising nursing mothers and making them feel like formula would be the more 'normal’ option.

This is the reason why I support World Breastfeeding Week.

There are so many more facets to the politics of breastfeeding that I simply don’t have the time or room to go into in this blog! Some of it fascinates me. I’m not going to sit here and list the many amazing things about breastmilk, or say 'breast is best' – most of us know these facts already.

But I would love to see a shift. A shift in our uptight society that makes it ok and entirely normal for a mother to lift up her top in a restaurant, or a shop, or a bus shelter to feed her hungry child. A shift that would mean no one bats an eyelid at a breast OR a bottle.

We don’t rush up to cows or sheep in a field and throw covers over their udders or tell them to go feed their young somewhere more private! So why do we do it to our women? It will always baffle me.

Charlie x

Find out more about World Breastfeeding Week here

Charlie O'Brien: The last feed