There has been great discussion for the past week about the Time Magazine cover about extended Breast feeding, with everyone having their own opinion!
So i was very interested to hear that Daytime TV Programme This Morning was going to be discussing the topic. I am not a daytime TV watcher, so I set the Sky+ to record and settled down later to watch ....
Watching the interview, the first thing that saddened me was the fact that Sharon Spinx stopped feeding her other child at 5 months because he was starting to lose weight and she had no support, or anyone to turn to and immediately gave up breastfeeding and fed him formula...
However, this time she has a daughter aged 3.5 years and she is still breastfeeding her, as we all know, in our society everyone has an opinion!!
Sitting opposite her, Sonia Poulton, a journalist who thinks mothers like Sharon are selfish and exploiting their child for their own needs ! ? !
It was always going to be a split audience on such a difficult subject. What saddened me the most was that some people could be so venomous, calling mothers that breastfed over 12 months perverse and weird, what gives people the right to judge others like this!!
I could just as easily say that mothers that had decided for no reason other than "they don't want to" breastfeed, as completely selfish and a rubbish mother, but I would never dream of it....(that is not my opinion, just proving a point!)
As you all know I have breastfed all of my children past 12 months, and weaned them when THEY were ready, I do not consider myself in any way weird, and certainly not perverse!
My opinions on the Time Front Cover ? I think it was put there to provoke a response and get everyone talking about Time Magazine, which it has succeeded in doing, do i think it has helped breastfeeding in any way, shape or form ? NOT AT ALL....
As I promised when I began this blog, no pushy breastfeeder here, and I think the headline further damages the message of trying to encourage breastfeeding, in fact it is doing the opposite and making mums that do not breastfeed feel inadequate.
I cannot express enough the benefits of breastfeeding, but I know that there are some mums, for whatever reason cannot feed their babies, and I don't feel that we should make them feel any less of a Mum just because they have not breastfed.
I'm sure there must be comments out there .....
No comments:
Post a Comment