Maternal attitudes to breast-feeding

Abstract

Breast feeding, of all bodily processes, has been the most revered and romanticized by the public imagination. For centuries artists have used the image of the nursing mother as a symbol of high and holy ideals; over the last fifty years women have been increasingly exhorted to take part in what has been called "the deepest and most precious relationship of a woman's life", by suckling their babies themselves. And yet these high ideals, these lofty aspirations have not been reflected in the actual practice of individual mothers, many of whom have, for whatever reason, preferred to feed their babies in some other manner. Today growing numbers of mothers either reject breast feeding initially or are soon forced to abandon it by the difficulties they encounter. There is now such a gap between ideal and practice that many question whether breast-feeding should still be recommended as the best way of feeding a baby. Others feel that breast-feeding is still of great benefit to both mother and baby, but that no realistic action can be taken to halt the decline of the practice until more is known about the reasons for it.