Of Breastfeeding

I'm going to keep this short because I doubt there are more polarizing topics than breast vs. bottle.

Personally - and please, don't think I'm throwing judgement around like a football on Sunday - I felt breast was best. I'll spare you long discussions on how much I hated it at first. Watch me as I skip over explaining what it's like to have to pump every two hours, day and night. Gloss over the myriad of excuses I tried to make myself believe to try and give myself justification to stop when I knew in my heart I was in for the long run.

Almost seven months later, my daughter has never tasted formula and Goddess willing, she never will. I find myself loving what I thought I couldn't stand for even a single day more. That time we spend together in that rocker - awesome.

Pregnancy, babies, labor - those early months when mother's are programmed to be the primary caregivers of this new life - are private battlegrounds. No shortage of advice, surely. But in the end, we all have to do what's best for us and us alone. That bond with our baby is the most sacred of trusts and no one has the right to judge what that mommy feels is right for that baby.

This comes in the aftermath of reading an article that slams breastfeeding mothers. It's core argument was that less than 14% of mom's make it to the six month mark without formula so if anything, we're the freaks.

I envision a future where breastfeeding is such a singular rarity that it isn't talked about in polite company. Where young mother's are briefly coached on how to let their milk dry up and ways to make it happen as quickly and painlessly as possible. (This one already happens, Andrew and I had to sit through a class on it).

Not too long down the road, breasts will become sex objects totally and completely. Serving only to attract a mate but not to sustain life. We'll keep dicing them and stuffing them, lifting them and worshiping them as toys until one day...

One day it won't matter any more. They're wisdom teeth. They're the appendix of the chest. The thumb on the whale. The bat's molars. Generations from now, breastfeeding will be at the best a nostalgic study on how misguided but well meaning our ancestors were. At worst it will be used as an example of how hard mother's had it before science stepped in. Deity gave us the ability to think and to improve our lives, surely He meant for breasts to be sexual objects and not ways to feed our young... surely...

Speaking from that 14% of freaks that have exclusively breastfeed, I can't feel anything but a sad resignation for our future on this topic.

Blessed Be.

EVE