Wednesday, February 10, 2010

(sometimes) breast is best? Bullsh*t!


I read this reader confession on the BadMommyBlogger site the other day, about breastfeeding, and how she felt that it shouldn't be anyone's business if she chose to bottlefeed her child. It stirred some emotions inside me, I had to leave a reply to the writer to support her quest:

Good for you girl! I tried breastfeeding my first whilst fighting severe PPD, having everyone around pushing me to keep trying while all I wanted was to (literally) kill myself. With the second one it was an obvious choice - bottle all the way. And even though I live in one of the most liberal city's on the utmost western part of this country (yes, SF) I managed to raise so many eyebrows I found a great competitor to plastic surgery. This is your choice and yours only. No one has the right to tell you anything! Believe me, there are times I want to say something to those mothers who are happily breastfeeding a clingy, whiny, 3 year old, but I refrain from doing it, because it is their choice, and I don't need to spend time with them if it bothers me that much. I am all for the fact that you have to sacrifice a part of yourself, and your life, when you have children, that's what parenthood is all about, but not at the COST of your own well-being and sanity. You have to be a happy mother to take care of your kids!

Bottom line is, all those smug "breast is best" mother should stop and consider one thing:
To force breast-feeding on mothers today is the biggest hypocrisy in a society which does everything to discourage it.
Fine, so smug breast-people out there have managed to dodge all the pit-falls of modern society and carved themselves a nice little utopia of breast feeding and Attachement Parenting, but the rest of us actually - by choice or not - live in the real world, and try our hardest to work around the increasingly tough demands that are forced upon us while raising our children.
We all try to do what is best for our children, to assume anything else is sheer ignorance. It might just not be to everyone elses taste, but please, keep it to yourselves.

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