hooters, honkers, the girls, knockers … whip them out

I know I’m a bit behind. The World’s Breastfeeding Week was at the beginning of this month. What did I do … not a post on breastfeeding. But I still breastfeed my two and a half year old as often as he wants to, regardless to what his Dad demands.

As August,  and the National Breastfeeding Month (US), is drawing to an end I finally watched the Join the Boob-olution! video. You can find it on breastfeeding.com or on youtube.

It is a campaign to raise breastfeeding awareness and tell US women that breastfeeding does not suck by celebrity Moms (Kelly Rutherford, Lisa Loeb, Constance Marie, Ali Landry, and more)  first announcing with gusto the derogative terms for breasts in our society, than informing us of the benefits of breastfeeding and telling us why we should do it. They conclude this exercise by encouraging us to ‘whip them out’.

So, please watch it and as the good girl I know you are do as they say.  😉

Seriously now. I love breastfeeding campaigns. I do. Do I think this one is effective? Not really. But it is fun anyway.

What I think would make a big turnaround in breastfeeding rates is firstly realizing (and not being terrified of what the corps may say) and saying out loud that it is NOT that the breastfeeding is so MAGICAL that it saves one from all sorts of illnesses. It is that NOT BREASTFEEDING your child (not infant, but a child! – a huge difference if I may say) puts YOU and HIM at a risk of developing various cancers, diabetes, various infections, and provides less than normal nourishment for brain development. Dare I say cellular malnourishment?

The turnaround will not happen until we recognize the importance and value of women’s work as the mothers they are. Being a mother woman functions as a childbearer, educator, healthcare provider, psychologist, nutritionist, personal trainer, bodyguard, driver, a cook, assistant,  philosopher, and a all-around goddess. Really. We nurture and nourish the fetus and protect him from the outside world, we give birth to him so she can become a person, and then we again nurture, nourish, protect, educate, feed, counsel, teach, nurse, stay up in the middle of the night, drive to/fro, be there for, and on and on i can go on. This invaluable service to human kind needs to be recognized, valued, protected, and SEEN in public. It is not in our best interest that a mother has to choose between breastfeeding her child and raising him in a healthy way or going to work three months after the birth and ‘dump him in the system’. In Canada we have a the parental leave for eight months where EI covers a portion of one wages’ and thank goodness for that. But only one year? A mother has to go back to work in precisely the time where her child is SUPER ATTACHED and is going through a huge developmental changes? Like becoming a toddler, having first real words, having his first high fever, etc.

Lets face it, breastfeeding is not better or optimal. Breastfeeding is NORMAL, period. As such, choosing not to breastfeed provides less than desirable results. One should be encouraged to do so in public as needed or desired – no questions asked. And I suggest that the Canadian government should invest in her citizens by enabling mothers stay at home for the first three years of a child’s life for when his psyche is ready to be experiencing the world from out of his mother’s arms and be a whole person because of that opportunity. Plus it would be really great if Moms could get an opportunity to go back to school and upgrade their education, even if only part time during this time … so … lower tuition, or hey, abolish tuition all together.

It should be mandatory that companies have resources allocated for the mothers amongst the workers. It should be given that there would be enticing and warmly furnished pumping rooms for every ten breastfeeding workers. It should be given that we would have daycares setup by the workplace so the mothers could visit their VERY young child so they don’t have to be separated for prolonged periods of time.

So, why don’t you go and read some true breastfeeding stories. We are all alike you know. I really like Kelly Rutherford’s storry of tandem nursing, co-sleeping, pumping, while going through a divorce. That makes more of an impact for moi…