Breastfeeding's Not Just For Hippies

Many people think that breastfeeding is outdated... it's what the cave women did, after all. The hippies in the 70s picked it back up after a long time of formula being the norm, along with not shaving their armpits and letting their hair grow to their waists.

But not only is breastfeeding not outdated, it is timeless. Every mammal in the world nurses their offspring; Mammals... Mammary glands. Get it? We're designed to put our children to breast as soon as they're born, and let them keep coming back until the "milk" teeth (baby teeth) fall out and adult teeth start coming in (between 4-7 years old).

Society puts a lot of pressure on new moms to go with the flow, do what everyone else is doing... be a sheep and don't educate yourself at all. Well, starting now, quit that. Use your education, your common sense, and your instincts to parent. When the baby's born, what do your instincts say to do (when there's not a bottle of formula waved in your face)? They tell you to give that baby the milk you've been making for the past 6 months (breasts start to produce colostrum, the first milk, around 10-14 weeks gestation), straight from the tap, as soon as possible after birth.

Breastfeeding is just biologically normal. Not super serum, or liquid gold as it's often referred. Just normal. Human milk for human babies (and toddlers!), because it's designed specifically for them. Of course it's been shown to affect cancer rates, IQs, a slew of diseases and conditions; but the question to ask on that (and I'll come back to it in a different post) is, "Does breastfeeding reduce these rates, or does NOT breastfeeding RAISE the rates?"

There's an environmental aspect to nursing: no waste from packaging, no waste from manufacturing, no water being used to make the milk besides what you're already drinking. That probably catches the "green" eye, but for most breastfeeding mothers, it's just icing on the already awesome cake.

Whether you're doing it for the environment or for your (and your baby's) health, breast milk is still the best thing for your baby... because it's what we're designed to do.