I am a lactivist

And becoming more so the more information I have learned. A couple of months ago, there was a nurse in locally because a woman was given a ticket for breastfeeding her daughter at a local campground. something about indecency. If Kiera had not weaned by then I would have been there for sure.
I realise also, that this is a personal issue for women. I realise that it is a sensitive issue as well. But my issue is in a large part to do with the formula companies, that IMO, decieve women into believing that what comes out of a bottle even remotely resembles breastmilk. Because it doesn't. it doesn't even come close, in fact they know its missing over 100 components that breastmilk has.

Here are a few facts, just off the top of my head about bfing:
If a baby is born a preemie, and the mother pumps her milk, the body will make a specially formulated milk for that age. it literally changes as the baby changes. As well, if the mother can't make milk or whatever, even donated milk has been shown to make a substantial improvement in the baby's health. substantial.
A baby will suffer from fewer ear infections, diarrhea, colds, flu, basically anything that you can think of will happen less often if the child is breastfeed, even for a short time. A child is never allergic to its own mother's milk, unless the mother is eating something that the child cannot eat.
In fact, today I was at the mall getting K's pictures done. While we were in the play area a woman sat next to me and commented on her 8 month old girl and how much more difficult she was than her older brother in the sickness department. Apparently she had chronic ear infections, and guess what she pulled out? that's right, a bottle. I mentioned that perhaps she should avoid milk, and that my friend whose son had chronic ear infections, stopped as soon as he was taken off of gluten. She didn't seem to excited about that. she said she was giving her a special formula now with no diary or soy. I can just imagine how much that cost. She also said she was getting something from the doctor to stop her allergies to what she might be eating. that is brilliant, supress her immune system instead of just making basic dietary changes so its not even in her system. *rolling eyes*. I am assuming of course, that this woman had the full capacity to breastfeed and yet she did not.

Its the did not for their own "convience" that really really really annoy me. And yes, its true, I am being judgemental. I am being judgemental because guess what? Its costing ME MONEY. yes siree bob, if you want to talk capitalism here and go strictly by monetary terms, when a woman choses not to bf for anything other than physical reasons, it is money out of my pocket. why? well lets see, if that child gets ear infections all the time, guess who sees the doctor? and guess whose overall insurance goes up?

In fact, I found this crunchy little article that broke it down for me:
If you bf your child, medical costs for that child is going to be $200 less than if you didn't. A company down here figured that out, that means that just by bfing, the company would be saved 140000 a uear. Every year it costs the system 291 million dollars bc of infant diarhhea in non bf infants. RSV costs 225 mil and diabetes that is insulin dependent costs 9.6- 124.4 mil in annual healthcare costs. ( and yes, the risk is reduced if you were bfed)
WIC shells out 2.6 mil + a year for infant formula.

The estimated saving for Medicaid was $112 per infant in the first six months of life, assuming baby was bfed for a minimum of 3.

That is the money end of it. Here are some more benefits:
Decreases anemia, decreases SIDS, decreases common illness (like colds, etc), decreases allergies, not a single documented case of being allergic to mama's milk, reduces diarrhea, reduces chance of getting appendicitis (had to be bfed for a longer period of time), less likely to be hospitalised if ill, less chance of RSV, less chance of urinary track infections, lessens chance of MS.

For the mama: protects against osteoprosis, helps with wieght loss after birth, as well as contracting uterus back to normal size, WAYYYYYYY cheaper, protects against breast cancer, diabetes, infertility and ovarian cancer, and provides a natural "high" when feeding baby (natures way of making sure baby gets fed).

I am also ranting bc I have a friend, I guess I will call her that now, who chose not to breastfeed. Not because she wasn't capable, not bc she didn't produce enough milk, not because she agonized over her choice, not it just wasn't conveinant for her. To me it was weird, bc I knew she had busted her can to try and bf her first child who had a very bad latch and causd her excruitiating pain and after 3 weeks she gave up. that I could understand. she even had lacation consultants help her and it became apparent that her daughters latch was not going to work. She went to all the trouble of having a VBAC after her first baby, which is also no small fry. but then, after the baby latched ONCE and it was not a perfect latch, she said "forget it". it REALLY REALLY bothers me because SHE STAYS AT HOME WITH HER KIDS. That is half the battle. Women who are working, especially in the US, are grossly unsupported in most companies, in their breastfeeding attempts. but this women dose not HAVE that problem. the problem that she described, even I knew how to fix. When she told me this story I am SURE she saw the look on my face of sheer disappointment that she would chose to feed her baby something SO utterly inferior than what her own body makes. In fact WHO's list looks like this:
1) mik from mama 2) milk from mama from a bottle 3) donated milk 4) formula. formula is 4th on the list! 4th!!!! who would want to, unless the HAD to, feed thier child, the 4th best thing? I think the language surrounding this topic needs to change. When you chose to formula feed, you are CHOOSING a few INFERIOR option. its not "second best", its not even in the BALLPARK.

Did I also mention that bf babies are SMARTER? and that most professionals KNOW this? and its an easily provable point?

Of course, the irony here is that I was not bfed. I was 6 weeks in hiatus between mummies. and though my new mummy tried, it just didn't work. that was very hard for my new mummy. my first mummy was also very sad that it just didnt work out that she could have bfed me. but she did bf her others for a very long time. I blame the fact that I was not bfed on the fact that I could NEVER do math. EVER. I guess I just didnt get the necessary stuff to make that part of my brain develop.

So, if you ever see my bfing my new baby, I make no apologies. I will do my best to not flash you, but I really don't give a rats' ass if I make you uncomfortable, if you don't like it, don't look. I am going to bf this child, barring no unforeseen circumstance like an excruitating latch or something, until they decide to quit. its suppose to be to a year anyway, and guess what? only 14% of women EVER make it past the 6 month mark. how pathetic. WHO recommends to 2 years anyway. so I will bf away until they have had thier run of mummy's milk.

To all the other lactivists out there, a toast from a new found member.