Why breastfeeding makes you a martyr

“Why Breastfeeding makes you a Martyr” is a guest post by Kate Tunstall.

I’m a huge of advocate of breastfeeding and I’ve written about it many times: when a woman breastfeeds, it necessarily takes over her life. I don’t think the degree to which it does so can be fully comprehend until/unless it’s experienced – because literally everything becomes about that.

Naturally, a new baby takes over everything anyway – but breastfeeding is in a league of its own. It affects:

• Diet
• Hormones
• Choice of clothing
• Freedom

It also impacts something which cannot be summarised in a single word; ‘maintenance’ is about as close as I can get… Allow me to explain: if a scheduled feed is late for any reason (rare – we know the stakes and they are high), then it’s essential to manually empty the breast before the persistent supply of milk makes mum ill – like hospitalised ill if ignored. Yep, no kidding – that very same magical formula which is akin to nectar for our babes is essentially poisonous to us if not removed in good time. Oh, the irony.

So, by necessity, breastfeeding becomes all-consuming. You could, perhaps, compare it to relieving yourself in the bathroom – because it is equally vital, and just as much a tedious but critical part of our lives. It may not be a subject we discuss particularly, but it’s always there: I need to deal with this soon, or I will have a problem…

So it’s reasonable then that when a woman is breastfeeding she may become somewhat preoccupied with it; when your whole life revolves around something, that’s natural, right? And since breastfeeding itself is also natural, the entire subject should be a complete non-issue.

Except it’s not, is it?

I’m so tired of the debate. If it’s not one side then it’s the other – and it’s so tedious. I have no desire to be involved in the argument – as far as I’m concerned there’s little to add that hasn’t been said a thousand times already. (I’ve chimed in myself on more than one occasion.)

And yet… When somebody pokes me with a stick? Well – they’ve basically invited me to react, haven’t they?

Click here to read Kate’s full post

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