I ♥ BOOBS

About 4 years ago Dan and I were both given t-shirts that had this logo across the front…

“I ♥ BOOBS”.

On the back it said, “If you love them, then get them checked”. It obviously was to promote breast cancer awareness. I think that it is wonderful that individuals, families, companies and media have all stepped up to raise money, and awareness for the second highest cause of death in women.

One thing I wish there was more awareness about is breastfeeding.
There are many contributing factors, but studies have shown that women who breastfeed have lower risks of developing breast cancer.
Breastfeeding could account for almost two-thirds of the reduction of breast cancer incidents. That's huge! Women who were formula-fed as infants have higher rates of breast cancer as adults, but women who were breastfed as children, even if only for a short time, had a 25% lower risk of developing breast cancer than women who were bottle-fed as infants.  
If you exclusively breast-feed, you suppress the menstrual period, which is what lowers your risk of developing Breast Cancer....very few women exclusively breastfeed.

Breast Cancer is one of the many cancers that breastfeeding can reduce you AND your childs chances of fighting later in life. Others include: Ovarian Cancer, Endometrial cancer, Crohn's disease, Leukemia, Hodgkins Disease, as well as developing diabetes, asthma, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Osteoporosis. 

 
There are hundreds of reasons to breastfeed your child, boy or girl. I could go on and on about them.... but on to my main point.

The World Health Organization recommends nursing your child for at LEAST 2 years. The immunities that you will pass into your child are priceless.
 It makes me so sad when I hear of a mother who chooses not to breastfeed because of how complicated they think it might be. They question how it might interfere with their schooling, work, or social lives. There are mothers who chose to give it a try but felt pressure from the nurses in the hospital to just give their baby a bottle of formula. They are also given a “care package” filled with formula samples, and bottles, but then are told that “breast is best”….. how confusing for a new mom! There are options that we aren’t even told of by our pediatricians, such as Milk Banks and Wet Nurses. Yes, they do still exist!

Beside all that I just said, there is something more that infuriates me than a mother who chooses not to give their baby human milk.
I hate it when i hear of a mother who DOES choose to feed her baby the way that God intended and others look down upon her, shun her or tell her to stop.
I recently heard of a women that was visiting a church and needed to breast feed her child. She began and draped a blanket over her. Her baby began to fuss and so she moved out to the lobby. A man approached and asked her to go to a separate room. I honestly do not know the exact words that were used, but the women ended up leaving the church as soon as her husband came out and was very upset.
If she had simply been sitting there with a bottle in her hands not one person would have had a second thought about it. Yet it is an exposed nipple. To me, this is not only un-christian, it is un-human! God created a women’s body PERFECTLY, and He was pleased with it. He gave us breasts to feed our children. We should not only be tolerable of a nursing mother, but encouraging and accepting. If a man feels uncomfortable with it, and has a hard time controlling his own eyes and thoughts then I believe HE should be the one to leave the room.

I have been breastfeeding our son for almost 16 months now, I have no plans of stopping anytime soon. I am of a small percentage of women (IN THE USA) who has continued on longer than 6 months. Close to about 10%. Extended breastfeeding is not popular, but I don’t care.
In almost every other country, women breastfeed their children for years, and it is simply just what they do. Their breasts make milk, their children need that milk. In even in some countries women are treated with such respect when they are nursing that they are offered special chairs or something to drink. Those are the people who know how important health is. They know that they and their baby are given one body and that they need to do what is natural to care for that body.

Please, when you see a nursing mother, give her the respect she deserves!