Go read the Disclaimer again. I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. Seriously.
There are several damaging ideas about the human breast. The idea that the breast is somehow a flesh bottle causes a number of problems. Women worry that they're breasts don't have enough milk. The more the baby sucks, the more milk there will be. There are rare women who won't produce enough milk (breast reduction surgery being a major contributor to this population; women with small breasts not as a result of reduction do not have more trouble making milk). Otherwise, it's a matter of technique: getting a good latch, allowing the baby to decide when to eat and for how long.
The breast as flesh bottle is tied to the idea that the only way to feed a baby other than at the breast is with a bottle. This is not accurate.
The bottle idea conceals a lot of the wonderful attributes of the breast: milk from the breast adapts to the local environment, producing appropriate antibodies and more water when it is hot. Things in bottles must be treated with care to ensure their contents do not go bad: they need refrigeration and washing or sterilization. Washing the breasts too often can cause problems (drying, cracking, pain); they do not need to be washed, but take care of themselves. The contents of the breasts are naturally sterile, and contain antibodies which kill germs after the milk leaves the breasts.
The bottle idea also contributes to a persistent belief in pumping-and-dumping to get rid of milk in the breast that has "gone bad" because mama had a drink (when alcohol is cleared from the bloodstream, it is also cleared from the breast) or worked out (lactic acid, ditto).
Exposing the breast to feed a baby in public is not an obscene act. In Islamic nations where women must go veiled, women can still pop a boob out to feed their baby in public. All woman is pudenda except the breast.
By treating the breast as a sexual characteristic or organ, we make it reasonable to use that organ in ways that potentially damage its function as an organ for feeding babies. Surgery (whether augmentation or reduction) is probably the single biggest contributor to genuinely inadequate milk supply. While some surgeons are making an effort to preserve function, they have not been able to dramatically improve this outcome.
Because the breast is so important visually in our culture, and the dominant ideal for the breast is that of a recently post-partum woman suffering from engorgement, we've got an entire industry devoted to making bras that compress the breast in an effort to help it defy gravity and look plump from the top. Independent of potentially negative health effects on women who are not pregnant or breastfeeding, a lot of bras out there have the potential to contribute to plugged ducts and mastitis. And because it is so inconceivable for most women to walk away from that ideal, not wearing a bra at all is very hard to do.
If the breast is sexual, then the person to whom one is sexually loyal (a spouse or partner) can reasonably expect first call on the breasts. This makes the breastfeeding relationship between mother and baby more compeititive with the adult relationship than it has to be.
Making milk and caring for our young at the breast does not make us a cow, or even like a cow, at least, not any more like a cow than it makes us like a cat, or a dog or a pig or an otter or any number of other mammals. While cows are very popular as patterns on various home decorative items, a lot of women have trouble with this connection. And that connection further distances us from side-lying nursing (which as near as I can tell cows do not do). A cat, pig or dog analogy would at least help us realize we can breastfeed our babies while lying down comfortably snuggled in bed.
Copyright 2006 by Rebecca Allen.
Created February 3, 2006 Updated March 8, 2006