Silver George III nipple shields and alligator babies

There has been lots in the media about breastfeeding recently – sensationalist headlines talking of harming babies by breastfeeding and breastfeeding causing allergies.  And here we now have someone – who the media keep using as their resident breastfeeding specialist – talking about alligator babies and how the size of your breast does matter.  When is the media going to support evidence based breastfeeding information and internationally recognised institutions that have spent years supporting mothers to feed their babies the way nature intended?

It is true, as Clare Byam Cook says, that some women would have been unable to breastfeed in the past and we should remember that just because we live in a modern world, it doesn’t mean we can all breastfeed without having to tackle seemingly insurmountable problems, but it is also true that lots more women would be able to exclusively breastfeed to around six months, like the World Health Organisation recommends, if they had the right support, guidance or information from friends, family or the relevant support worker, counsellor or consultant.  The media could help spread this message. Instead they seem, rather misguidedly, to want to undermine it.