Breastfeeding is Natural!
Human beings are mammals and are therefore genetically suited for breastfeeding. Our infants grow inside their mothers’ wombs until they are developed sufficiently to survive outside, and then are nourished at the breast. Mammary glands actually serve as extensions of the placenta, providing an ever-changing mixture of nutrients, vitamins and minerals, water, immunities, and live white blood cells to meet the infant’s growing needs.
The Problem
For as long as humans have existed a baby would naturally be nourished and comforted at the breast for several years. Experienced women would aid their daughters in the basics of nursing, and teach young women how to feed babies in a way that would avoid the problems associated with modern-day breastfeeding. Unfortunately, in the last hundred years, women have lost their natural ability to embrace the art of breastfeeding.
Breastfed infants were almost unheard of in the 1950s and 60s when almost all babies were fed artificial infant formula. Thus we have nearly an entire generation of expectant mothers who have no support from close female relatives as they make the choice to breastfeed their children. They receive poor and misleading information from a variety of sources, including healthcare workers.
The formula companies have been on a crusade to turn every mother away from feeding her infant as is naturally intended. The result is that the act of breastfeeding has been labeled as a mysterious, trying, even disgusting, and inconvenient way to care for one’s baby, and many women even go so far as to fear attempting it.
The Thinking Mother to the Rescue!
The Thinking Mother seeks to alleviate those fears and concerns that expectant and new mothers have, and stand in the gap for the lack of close, experienced parenting support that our ancestral mothers had as they sought to love their children at their breasts.
