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Breast feeding is natural not normal



In our life time there are so many different parenting styles.  We all do what we think is right, or what others pressure us to do.  What might be ‘normal’ to me, can sound strange to you.  For me it is normal for my children to sleep in bed with me.  For you it might be normal to keep the bed restricted to mommy and daddy.  For me it is normal to do baby led weaning, for you it is normal to give baby cereal at 4 months because the clinic sister said so.

The statement I would like to make today is that breast feeding has nothing to do with what you think is normal or not.  It should be seen as a natural step following birth.  I think allot of mothers are afraid of being labeled or pushed under a certain parenting style and then choose to not breast feed.  SA’s breastfeeding statistics are shocking.  And because only 1 in 3 women really can’t breast feed we are obviously looking at a bigger problem.  Information and support are very limited.

Our society is actually so funny.  We only buy free range eggs and we are concerned about the meat we consume and we worry where our milk and water comes from.  We try to live all healthy and green and natural, yet our children get the most unnatural start in life.

Formula will never be breast milk. It is fake and unnatural.  Breast feeding doesn’t make me normal and you less normal.  We are all still human.  But just like birth, breast feeding should be as natural as breathing.

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