A group of Irish mothers who breastfeed their children until school-going age have defended the practice from widespread criticism after the cover of Time magazine featured a woman nursing a three-year-old boy.
Last month the US publication featured Jamie Lynne Grumet, a 26-year-old American mother, breastfeeding her son while he stood on a stool. Grumet said strangers had threatened to inform social services about her. Typical comments on Irish internet forums have included: “If a kid can manage to open a fridge, there is no need for breastfeeding.”
Jenny Foxe, a Dublin mother, took to her blog to respond to critics after seeing the “fantastic” photo of Grumet. She breastfeeds her four-year-old son whenever he asks for “milka”.
“He might only ask for milk twice a week,” she said. “My eldest son came up with the word ‘milka’ and it stuck. Instead of asking for ‘boobie’ in the middle of the shopping centre, he asks for ‘milka’ and most people think he’s asking for chocolate. He loves the comfort of it.
“The bond in the breastfeeding relationship is impossible to describe to people who haven’t experienced it and the benefits are huge and varied. Why do some people find it so disgusting? It was only the Victorians who sexualised the breast.”
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Emer McInerney, a 43-year-old businesswoman from Swords, has defended breastfeeding her daughter, aged 5. “The Time picture was a bit over the top but it’s good to know there are more people doing it than you,” said McInerney, who runs Onceborn.ie, a website that sells breastfeeding accessories and nursing clothes.
“I saw comments about it being sexual, which it isn’t. So I’ve stopped reading really negative comments and I don’t give a damn any more. I thought when [my daughter] started school, she might want to give up. I don’t want to be the one to tell her to stop, though I might have to when she turns six or seven,” she said.
Time’s cover story included a profile of Bill Sears, a Catholic paediatrician and self-styled guru of attachment parenting. In The Baby Book, which he published in 1992, Sears encouraged mothers to respond to their babies’ every cry and recommended keeping a baby close constantly, carrying them in slings by day instead of pushing them in strollers and sharing a family bed at night.
Last week singer Alanis Morissette said she will continue to breastfeed her 17-month-old son for as long as he wants to.
Catherine Verling, a 40-year-old accountant who lives near Fermoy, Co Cork is also a fan of attachment parenting. The mother of three breastfeeds her five-year-old son and two-year-old daughter and allows her youngest to sleep in her bed. “Peter only breastfeeds in the evening. I leave it completely up to him but I wouldn’t do it in public now,” she said. “I do with Margaret. We’re going swimming later and I’m pretty sure she’ll want to reconnect at the pool.”
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Though the World Health Organisation recommends exclusive breastfeeding until the age of six months and then continued breastfeeding to age 2 or older, Ireland still has one of the lowest rates in the western world. However, extended or “full-term” breastfeeding is enjoying a resurgence in some quarters, according to Jan Cromie, national co-ordinator of La Leche League of Ireland, which provides information and encouragement to breastfeeding mothers. A private Facebook page for extended breastfeeding in Ireland has won more than 600 members in less than six months.
Cromie, who breastfed her four children, believes that while the Time magazine cover “pitched mothers against each other”, extended breastfeeding will become more acceptable the more often mothers are shown practising it.
“It hasn’t helped that many GPs discourage mothers from breastfeeding after one year — as if the milk suddenly turns into water. I think they just don’t have the knowledge about the benefits. When doctors are training to be a GP, they have just a few hours’ lessons on breastfeeding.”