Feeding by Means of Breast.

I can’t help it, I have to write a post about breastfeeding after the utter outcry exhibited by disgruntled women up and down the land …

Not that I am right about everything. But after breastfeeding 4 babies, twice successfully, and twice unsuccessfully, I definitely feel I have earned an opinion on the matter, for what its worth.

First of all, Breast is best.

Suck it up sisters! … must we pretend this isn’t the case? really? are we all that sensitive?

This is classic UK attitude at play. Again.

(We don’t want a nanny state, but we need and expect to be nannied : We want our government to provide us with the facts. But we cant handle the facts once they are presented.)

And when a MAN – a flaming breastless and wombless man who has never given birth, sits there with his penis and dares to have an opinion on public health and all hell breaks lose.

Apparently, on this occasion, he is ‘butting in’ and it is ‘not his job’ to advise on Breastfeeding. As a father, he is not entitled to an opinion.

But his personal life aside, lets look at Jamie Olivers campaign work thus far:

Sorting out shocking school dinners. Lets see now, that seems to be fine with everyone. We don’t mind blaming the schools and/or government for making our children fatter than ever at age 4+. We don’t mind pointing the finger elsewhere and talking about the diabetes pandemic threatening to blow so big that it may wipe out our NHS … oh sure Jamie, Please DO ‘butt in’. Knock yourself out. On this occasion we need a strong national treasure to bring us back from our turkey twizzler brink. Thank you.

Hmm. okay. So far so good.

Next. Sugar tax to help our children’s diets and teeth. That’s fine too, lets point some more fingers at the corporate giants force-feeding us all sugar against our will. We love him. He is a legend.

But then, oh gosh, then he wants discuss how our nations children might be fed at the beginning of their lives involving talk of …

*braces my chair* …. here goes: breasts?

BREASTS?? WHOA!

hold your horses there Jamie, back the f*** up … You clueless, misogynistic beast, you.

Everyone knows – you can’t talk about breasts unless you have them.

You can’t objectify them.

You absolutely can’t admire them (even if they are on show a little bit)

And you certainly cant suggest that they should be used for breastfeeding.

(Oh, and Jamie, word to the wise – Its only fair game to talk about children’s heath once they reach school age. Otherwise it makes you an arsehole. You silly!)

Oh do behave!

This outcry is making all of us look bad. And a tad daft too.

He simply stated that breastfeeding in this nation is in a bit of a state. With too little support at community level to help support and trouble shoot problems with breastfeeding as they arise, a fair amount of ignorance and a shocking public attitude towards breastfeeding in public, isn’t he simply highlighting an incredibly important issue countless mums have been saying about for years?

For example, my Facebook feed is literally littered with memes such as this:

and this

I’ve lost count of the amount of blogs I’ve read written by women who have had a negative experience nursing their children. So ladies, whats our message here? what do we want? do we want support or not? isn’t Jamie Oliver merely offering up his help in an area of public health which needs a little modern light shon upon?

But, oh right. Because he’s a man, he’s being offensive.

This is double standards.

Woman are basically being IN YOUR FACE sexist suggesting that as a father of four, who is married to a person in receipt of breasts, he is unwelcome to assert an opinion based on his own experience and detailed research. Well, If this isn’t Misandry, I don’t know what is.

My story.

I breast fed successfully twice, It was an utterly perfect feeding system which worked like a dream. kind of.

I happily sacrificed myself for the process. And despite going through mastitis countless times; feeling completely broken as I bled and cried my way through feeds … tired, exhausted and depleted beyond words; An hourly task which can only be described as like having a ravenous, motorized little jaw of superhero strength suck shards of glass through my nipples was tough going at times. Sure. But, I soldiered on. Because it was my job. And personally, I felt that it was the very first and most amazing gift I could give my babies at the start of their lives. Nothing would stop me from feeding them the best option available. Nothing. I had tons of milk and I was going to let me children have it.

Did I feel like a deserved a medal for breastfeeding two of my babies exclusively until they were 12 & 18 months old? er, yeah, I was a trooper for doing it through all of the problems. I could have given up; I could have thrown in the towel at each hurdle. But I didn’t.

And then there were the two times when it didn’t go so well.

I had to stop feeding during those times by 12 weeks as I had no milk. And despite trying everything to boost milk supply, it just wasn’t happening. My babies were going hungry and I had to move them on to Formula milk.

I was absolutely devastated. Of course I was. But what could I do? not much really.

Did I feel like a failure? a bit.

But it was what it was. It wasn’t anyone’s fault and I simply can’t understand the over sensitive mentality. Sometimes nursing goes well, and sometimes it doesn’t.

Breast will always be best … and such a statement is not interfering with personal choice, Parental rights, Womans rights nor personal health implications which affect how we might choose to feed our babies.

That statement didn’t adversely affect me whilst I successfully nursed, and it didn’t offend me when I couldn’t nurse – It was just a fact. It still remains a fact whether you can/can’t/want to/hate the idea/love wine too much/on medication etc. etc.

To conclude -and with my usual sarcasm aside -Personally, I would like to thank Jamie Oliver for doing what he does best. I admire him immensely for what he does for this country, He doesn’t have to campaign for the sugar tax. He doesn’t have to remain a UK tax payer and employ thousands of UK residents. But he does so, I believe, out of a huge loyalty to our country.

I just wish we had more public figures like him. (also, my sister works for him and says he is the best boss in the world!)

What do you think? were you offended by Mr Olivers comments? Am I missing the point here? Because if I am, feel free to enlighten me … Much like a man (or woman) in orthopaedic shoes, I will always stand corrected if I need to