There was just a book published, Your Breasts Are Trying to Kill You, by author Florence Williams. It seems as though she is taking a serious, yet humorous look at what our breasts do and don’t do for us. I think there is much truth in this book. I haven’t read it yet, just the review, but have ordered it and will read it. More to come on that.
That is not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the fact that breasts, breastfeeding, and breast milk are always getting bad and miss-informed press! In the review, Lindy West has a list, “Five things I learned about breasts from Florence William’s Breasts” #2 is “Babies are cannibals and your breasts may be sexist.” Huh? The author of the review, Lindy West, goes on, ” A male baby requires almost 1,000 megajoules of energy in his first year of life. “That is the equivalent,” Williams writes, “of one thousand light trucks moving one hundred miles per hour.” And do you know where he gets all that energy? Not from the sun, unless you are a fern that somehow learned how to read the Internet (good job!). No, it’s from your boobs. HE’S EATING YOU. That little dude sucks it right out of you like the world’s chubbiest and least stealthy vampire. Which, of course, is exactly how it’s supposed to be—but it’s not surprising that so many women are leery of breast-feeding.” I think they are leery of breastfeeding because of people like you! Yikes!
Also, there is talk to our breastmilk being contaminated. Guess what? So are the cows, soy beans, and whatever other stuff they put in baby formula!!! Duh! However, unlike baby formula, there things in breastmilk that will protect your baby from the effects of these contaminants. Ha!
Let’s get the story straight.
Breastfeeding is not always easy but it also not the parasitic relationship the author of the review presents. Stop. Please. Thank you.