| dc.description.abstract | I have a powerful memory of first reflecting on Irish breastfeeding politics. I was 20 and visiting a then-
new American coffee chain that had arrived on my local main street. Amid trying to figure out which
series of words they wanted me to say to produce what was erstwhile obtainable as a “large black
coffee” I noticed something unusual about the setting: the café had a disproportionate number of tables
filled with women with babies. It was middayish and perhaps some kind of class had just finished
nearby. At one table of four, two women were in different stages of openly breastfeeding babies and
chatting. Initially—in line with my Irishness—I looked away, embarrassed by the possibility of a tiny
amount of nudity. And then, thinking about how nice it was that Ireland—the Ireland of the Magdalene
laundries, Mother and Baby homes and no divorce until the mid-1990s—had, at least in this leafy
suburb, reached a place where some women felt at peace having a breast, or part of a breast, out at work
in public. I thought about what a marker of spiritual growth this represented for the country and did my
best to offer what I’m sure was an awkward and possibly creepy “good on you” smile in their general
direction.
I say all of this to say that I think that it’s wonderful that we have come to a place where breastfeeding
in public can be a more relaxed part of family life. We have National Breastfeeding Week, an annual
‘Latching On’ ceremony, Breastival, and increasingly, parental leave contracts include special
provisions to support breastfeeding women returning to work. I don’t doubt that we still have far to go,
and that many still face difficult choices and anxiety in their infants’ journeys to solid food, but I’m
hopeful that the promised land on that front is much closer than it has ever been, and, is approaching
with ever-greater haste.
These improvements for breastfeeding parents have not sprung from nowhere. Governing bodies at
various levels have implemented policies aimed at increasing national breastfeeding figures because
Ireland’s rates are low when compared with socioeconomically similar countries. This push towards
breastfeeding has, in my view, had some negative consequences for people who formula feed. This
article is about what I perceive to be a radical dogma that has emerged in Ireland. Having read what I
can only describe as a bizarre and frustrating characterisation of the current situation by Sabina Higgins,
as a research academic, I feel somewhat compelled to say a few words about some of this mythos. I am
also a new mother, at great peace with a choice I made early on about feeding my daughter, and
frequently flabbergasted by the rhetoric I find in the literature and advice on feeding infants. So, I try
to do two things below: 1) make the case that the public rhetoric around feeding babies is often extreme
and misleading, and 2) I discuss my own motivations in deciding to formula feed. | en |
