Doctors recommend 2 years of breastfeeding, but other experts stress that whether to do it, and for how long, is always a personal choice
- ‘Breast is best’ has been the consistent message to mothers from the health profession, and recently US doctors said mothers should breastfeed for 2 years
- Breastfeeding benefits mother and baby, giving protection from cancer, infection and disease, but experts say some women can’t manage it and that that’s OK too
In late June, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released recommendations that supported mothers breastfeeding for two years.
Once I would have felt disheartened by this: I gave up feeding my first baby at three months. I couldn’t get to grips with it at all. I was miserable, he was miserable. At 14 weeks, the paediatrician looked at both of us, red-eyed, tearful, thin and said: “I think a bottle might be better.”
We never looked back. I started to sleep. My son started to put weight on.
The AAP issues the recommendation with a caveat, though, which would have helped assuage my anxiety in giving up: “as long as mutually desired by mother and child”.
Lactation counsellor Dr Michelle Ng at The Family Zone in Hong Kong echoes the AAP’s proviso. “The decision to breastfeed is such a personal and emotional choice, and not everyone can breastfeed, nor continue for any duration,” she said, speaking ahead of World Breastfeeding Week 2022 which begins on August 1.