Food

It’s interesting to think about words and how we used them. A while back I was at the library with my boys and I overheard two moms with their babies talking about breastfeeding and how to stop. “When she started eating food she kind of stopped breastfeeding.” One of the women said.

Food. Yes, that’s a very common thing to say. Sometimes it feels like we don’t count breast milk as food. I know I’m guilty of using words like that. A mom who’s baby needs formula for medical reasons and is also breastfed may hear: “Okay, he has nursed for 15 minutes, I will go get the food.” What is that telling the mom? “Your milk is not good enough.” Of course this isn’t done intentionally or with mal intent. But it’s worth to think about. Babies don’t go from breastfeeding to eating food. They have been eating food all along.

Image source.

I have tried to be more conscious of this when I speak, but I do still mess it up at times. But if I, the midwife, don’t call breastmilk food, who will? Breastmilk is this amazing food, medicine, that holds so many good things for baby. Not for a random baby, for the specific baby that you are nursing! The colostrum is sometimes called liquid gold, and when you think of it as that you respect it more, see its value more. Colostrum helps the gut, where our a lot of our immune system is, to develop, it has stem cells and all the nutrients a newborn needs. It’s so magical that our bodies can not only create other humans but create the perfect food for those humans.

It’s also so important for breastfeeding people to trust their bodies and believe that they can make what their baby needs to survive. So often i hear that people don’t believe they are producing enough because their baby is fussy or they stopped breastfeeding because they were not producing enough milk. I always wonder how I can support them and how they were supported when I hear these things. I think support on the breastfeeding journey is so important. That’s why I have made a breastfeeding preparation course.

From birth our babies eat food. When they get older they start eating solid food. Breastmilk is all the baby needs for at least 6 months of their life, and the World Health Organisation recommends breastfeeding to age two and beyond, so it defiantly is food.