Apparently there's a bit of a dustup going on over at Livejournal due to the owners objecting to users' use of icons displaying women breastfeeding. (A more compelte explanation of the fracas can be found at Making Light, including an utterly insanely long argument about the merits of breastfeeding vs. formula blah blah blah.)

As most of my loyal readers know, I breastfed Anna. She had nothing other than breastmilk until she was ~5 months old, and then received no forumula or other milk substitute until she was a year old. (I pumped for 11 months. Ugh.) And then, I continued to nurse her mornings and evenings until she was about 18 months old, and gave her soy milk during the day. Therefore, it could be readily assumed that I am quite the advocate of breastfeeding. And, I am.

However.

I absolutely cannot stand the "breast nazis" who scream and rant about the evils of formula and insist that if you aren't giving your child the breast than you are harming your child. Puh-leeze. Yes, I do sincerey believe that breastmilk is best. Heck, I'd be willing to say that probably 99% of the women who formula feed their babies believe that breastmilk is best. But I do not believe that laying a huge guilt trip on mothers or mothers-to-be is the way to endear women to breastfeeding. Just as I do not believe that formula is "harmful" to babies. I really think that far more women will try breastfeeding if they are gently encouraged (not harangued!) to take a class or two and then given a small, realistic goal of breastfeeding for the first few weeks. I truly did not expect to make it to 18 months breastfeeding. However, I set myself small goals, e.g. I told myself I would absolutely breastfeed for the first six weeks, then when I made it to that milestone, I said, okay, now let's go for three months, then six months... and by that time it was easy.

But, let's face it, some women simply are unable to breastfeed. And god knows, those first few weeks are stressful enough without the added agony of worrying about your supply, or mastitis, or thrush, or cracked nipples, and so on. If breastfeeding makes you miserable, then stop! Enjoy your baby! (That being said, I would again like to encourage any expectant mother to take a breastfeeding class, because 90% of the above problems can be avoided with proper education.)

But anyway, I believe that any amount of breastfeeding is good, just as I believe that it is a lovely, natural thing, and should certainly not be lumped in with the showing of nipples in pornography. Therefore, even though I do not have a Livejournal account, I'll throw my $0.02 of support that way with this offering to my readers: