Happy Mothers Day and happy extended breastfeeding.. :-) Men welcome to read this :-)

[Kimberley]

I breastfed my 2 daughters for 4 + years each... a total of over 8 years...

The average age of weaning a child from breastfeeding is 4.5 years... so that means world wide children are often older than 5 when they naturally wean themselves... My second daughter was still going strong at 4 1/2 and it was I that encouraged her she was a big girl and time to stop having moms milk... actually it was me that had been breast feeding for over 8 years and was ready to give it up :-)

Anyway I am so loving this Time Magazine cover!!! Yesssss Yessss Yessss



Here are the links to the Time Magazine articles...

Behind the Cover: Are You Mom Enough?

http://lightbox.time.com/2012/05/10/parenting/#1

The Man Who Remade Motherhood

Dr Sears is a great man in my opinion...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2114427,00.html?pcd=pw-lb

Much love to us all!!

[DeDukshyn]

Breastfeeding is somewhat demonized in the west but so is vegetarianism, organic, healthy lifestyle (at least from the corporate perspective) ... A clear trend .. ;-) All my children were breastfed for over 2 years, their mother felt cutural 'pressure' even for doing it that long. The real issue is the programming that makes us judge others based on what 'society' says, not that there is some "right" or "wrong" plan that we all have to follow and condemn others by ...

Happy Mother's Day!

[Kimberley]

Breastfeeding is somewhat demonized in the west but so is vegetarianism, organic, healthy lifestyle (at least from the corporate perspective) ... A clear trend .. ;-) All my children were breastfed for over 2 years, their mother felt cutural 'pressure' even for doing it that long. The real issue is the programming that makes us judge others based on what 'society' says, not that there is some "right" or "wrong" plan that we all have to follow and condemn others by ...

Happy Mother's Day!


Yes! It amazes me to no end that the western culture down plays mammary glands in humans! Female breasts are functional for/to feed babies!!! And feed them well!!!

And that was the case for 200 thousand years until a hundred years ago when formula and bottle feeding was introduced???
Much love!!!

[A Simple Human]

The importance of breastfeeding: Why breastfeeding is important (http://www.womenshealth.gov/breastfeeding/why-breastfeeding-is-important/), and this is from a .gov site. Who woulda thunk it?! :faint2:

You both did the right thing for your children.

A.S.H.

[pugwash84]

I remember my Mother breast feeding for 2 years with Charlie and she used to feed him whilst doing her shopping and this is going back 14 years when he was born. People used to give her evil looks and she used to ignore some of them and if some of them started anything she would say what do you think these are made for ? I tried breast feeding with my first child and I lasted 6 months but it was still painful so weaned her and gave her formula and it put me off breastfeeding my second. I tried again with my 3rd child but my milk ran dry and I breastfed for a while with my forth. I know how painful breastfeeding can be and for me it made the after pains feel like labour pains. So I think people who breastfeed are so brave and wonderful and I admire any woman who can breastfeed because they go through pain to give their baby a better start in life.

[pilotsimone]

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[the_vast_mystery]

Yes! It amazes me to no end that the western culture down plays mammary glands in humans! Female breasts are functional for/to feed babies!!! And feed them well!!!

And that was the case for 200 thousand years until a hundred years ago when formula and bottle feeding was introduced???
Much love!!!

If I had to guess, I think the demonization of breastfeeding stems from murky and/or unclear boundaries that have not really been established within someone's mind regarding types of physical contact, affection, love and sexuality. For someone who for instance views a woman's body (And therefore their breasts) sexually and wants to make use of them sexually they might see breastfeeding for instance, as an erotic act. So then it becomes difficult for them to handle the idea of a child being breastfed as that implies the child is themselves participating in a sexual act which immediately triggers the concept that children should be prohibited from any sexual acts (until they come of age, whatever that means to the person. But we are quickly beaten to death with the idea that children should be kept as far away from anything remotely sexual as humanly possible for as long as possible.) So then the desire to suppress the activity becomes paramount as it's seen, to the person, as upholding the moral decency or innocence of children by preventing them from participating in what they might see as a form of sexual activity.

So then the real question becomes how do you convey the difference when the difference is entirely one that exists within someone else's mind? Confronting people with breastfeeding the act won't do it, because what's lacking is an emotional understanding and I'm unsure how that can be achieved. I know that I wasn't breastfed at all as a child and I ended up growing into the above although I'm self-aware enough about the issue to know that it's my own error in perception and not a problem with anyone else. I'm sure not everyone falls into that camp, but I do wonder if that's why we have such a climate here.

[ghostrider]

no other source of nutrition will do what the natural milk will do for growing children. now we can't have healthy children can we ? goes against depopulation plans doesn't it ?? I say let nature take it's course , government should stay out of motherhood.... grow kiddies grow , grow to be strong and healthy.... Go moms.....