Thread by @bridgetmcgann

My brain every time someone says “#fedisbest” at me

We need to talk about #breastfeeding like the reproductive right, child right, and public health issue that it is.

She’s not buying a tiny house. She isn’t even just feeding her child…

2/10

People have medical reasons for wanting breastfeeding that you may not have considered:

- minimizing their own risk of developing cancer or diabetes
- sensory needs
- bonding with a surrogate child, foster child, or adopted child
- trying to keep a sick child alive

3/10

People breastfeed for social/emotional reasons:

- exercising bodily autonomy
- building a sense of self-efficacy
- exercising bodily autonomy
- empowerment and body positivity
- bonding
- fostering attachment
- spiritual reasons
- healing generational trauma

4/10

People breastfeed for economic reasons:

- saving money
- food sovereignty
- a buffer from food insecurity in the wake of disasters and supply chain issues
- wanting to save lives through donation
- building kin relationships through sharing milk

5/10

People breastfeed for a myriad of practical and ethical reasons:

- convenience of not needing to prep/clean bottles
- needing to get more 😴
- their children just seem to find it comforting, and it doesn’t bother them
- minimizing their carbon footprint

6/10

#Breastfeeding is a:

✔️#reproductiverights issue
✔️child right
✔️#publichealth issue
✔️#healthequity issue
✔️#foodsecurity issue

AND YET. It’s rarely or never mentioned in any of these contexts.

7/10

We tend to treat lactation like a lifestyle “choice”—an inconsequential one. For many, though, it’s not a choice. That choice is taken away by a society that has no idea how lactation works, and blames individuals when this complex system “fails”

thelancet.com/journals/lance…

8/10

Imagine if kidneys failed at the same rate mammary glands seem to do. It would be declared a public health emergency and billions of dollars would be poured into research. (I’m looking at you, ED🍆)

We don’t even have a branch of medicine for it!

9/10

@POTUS’ new child hunger efforts must include lactation as food security.

The ONLY way it will work is if we take a wider view of child health, and integrate lactation into EVERY policy area: public health, reproductive rights, economic equality, social justice, climate.

10/10

https://twitter.com/bridgetmcgann/status/1577427783512309760

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