Why Celebrate World Breastfeeding Week?

Why celebrate World Breastfeeding Week? Why have a whole movement about nursing? Why post about it and blog about it and talk about it and argue about it?

Because it’s important. It’s important for people -not just mothers, not just women, but everyone- to know that breastfeeding is normal, that it’s not immodest or crude, that it’s about formula as a chemical substance, not bottlefeeding as a parenting choice–and that there is support in the community for nursing mothers and babies. It’s important for people to have a place to talk about it openly, for mothers to come and ask for help. It’s important for children to learn about it, that nipples aren’t gross and that the cow’s milk they drink and the ice cream they eat comes from a cow’s nipples just like a baby does.

6,000,000 babies don’t die each year because they were breastfed.

Formula feeding still kills over 1,300,000 children under the age of five worldwide.

Formula companies are still allowed to aggressively market their products in countries without clean water sources and where the majority of the consumers are not wealthy enough to afford exclusive formula-feeding.

Just yesterday, in only four hours of volunteering, I had four mothers come by to ask me about pumping for premature infants. Breastmilk makes the biggest difference for these babies, because breastmilk protects the lining of the intestines against pathogens, and low birth-weight babies benefit especially from breastmilk, even over “designer” LBW formulas. Additionally, many hospitals across the country still use powdered formula or milk fortifiers even though they cannot be sterilized and can cause lethal infections for infants.

And you know what? It’s important to mothers who want to breastfeed, because they need support. They need to be encouraged. They need to be CELEBRATED. They need to be told that their bodies are FABULOUS in all their stretch-marked, leaking-milk glory, that the milk they make is AMAZING and that it is all their baby needs. They need to be told that they’re still valuable even if they’re “just staying home and making babies.” They need to know that people care about them for more than just popping the kid out and they need to be told that they do matter.

Their feelings matter, and if they want to breastfeed, they should know that there are other women who have been there, who they can laugh and cry with, who can help them. They should know it’s okay to talk about your nipples, because your nipples aren’t erotic. They should know it’s okay to nurse your baby in public, even without a cover, because breastfeeding is not immodest. They should know it’s okay to tell your husband, no, he doesn’t “get his wife back” right after pregnancy, because herbody doesn’t belong to him in the first place.

That is why I care. That is why I celebrate World Breastfeeding Week, and why I’m getting my barefoot hippie on and rocking downtown Salt Lake every summer.