Most of us natural term breastfeeders deal with these questions a little too often for comfort, but it takes a true strength of spirit and commitment to the cause to field this question on national radio.
So my congratulations go out to Morgan Gallagher who answered these questions with grace and dignity just now on Radio 4. What a tangled web of myth, misunderstanding and ingrained prejudice are displayed by just a few words – attitudes that would take hours to unpick, not the few seconds that Morgan was given.
As National Breastfeeding Awareness Week approaches, here we are again being treated to the barrage of negative publicity that this annual campaign attracts. I can understand people having negative feelings about breastfeeding – we all know how it happens – people are either ignorant of the facts or carrying baggage of guilt or feelings of failure. But to catagorically deny the scientific evidence that artificial feeding carries some risk of harm to the baby is just plain wierd!
Somewhere, somehow, the idea is spreading that the differences between breastfeeding and artificial feeding are too small to worry about. The media, especially the BBC have a stated duty to ‘Educate, Inform and Entertain’. My proposal is that this interview failed to abide by the first 2 by allowing Morgan and Zoe to be interviewed by someone who clearly does not have a balance view of the subject and allowed her own preconceived notions and prejudice to influence the piece.
Sigh. I suppose it’s a reminder of why we need NBAW. All hail Morgan. I’m sure she’ll blog about her experience – have a look here: http://one-of-those-women.blogspot.com/
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