To Breastfeed or Not???

Catching little bits and pieces of the Today Show in the mornings seems to be the everyday norm. I hear the updates on Iraq, and for the most part what’s not being done over there (which is a whole different entry), and mostly just the informational “stuff” that usually doesn’t make me stop getting ready and sit and watch a particular segment.

This morning, however, one little bit caught my attention to the point where I had to rewind it to get to the beginning to make sure that I had heard the reporter correctly.

There are apparently news ads, (I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing them) that take aim at breastfeeding. They show women doing some pretty daredevil things while they are pregnant, and the saying that you wouldn’t do anything to put your baby in harm before they are born, why do it after by not breastfeeding them.

Now I breastfed my daughter, but to scare someone into feeling like they “have” to or you’re a bad mother or to guilt them into it just doesn’t make any sense to me. Becoming a mother is hard enough without having someone else making you feel guilty for one of the first choices that you have made. And let me add to that; that it’s just what it is, a choice, and a personal one at that. It’s a choice that you make concerning you and your child. YOU, no one else.

The piece went on to say that there was even a possibility of putting warning labels on formula in the future warning mothers that hey you can give this to your baby, but don’t you feel so guilty for buying this and not breastfeeding. At least that’s the way it came across. They likened it to the warning that is put on cigarettes. Any takers on how the label on the formula should read? Hey you horrible mother, put down this formula and go breastfeed.