In today's Telegraph, Anna White (tired mum of twins) coined the phrase 'the witches of breastfeeding' seemingly to describe anyone who advocates for breastfeeding.
I love it!
Rather embarrassingly she has hit the nail on the head. The uncomfortable truth is that in our (still) male-dominated culture, men cannot breastfeed. Formula milk means you don't need a woman in order to feed a baby, and scientists are already on the way to producing artificial wombs which will see to it that women are not needed in order to grow or birth them either. Breastfeeding challenges the status quo - and as a result there's a lot of breast envy about!
Many so-called 'witches' were (in fact) lay-healers - wise women. They helped people when they were ill, attended women in childbirth and they helped them to breastfeed their babies. When the male-only Church became dominant, witches were persecuted and burned at the stake... The male-only Universities churned out male physicians and childbirth became a male-dominated affair. Along the way a huge amount of precious knowledge got lost.
One could argue that the 'breastfeeding witches' are working hard to give some of that lost knowledge about that most womanly of arts back to mothers. Anna White may not have wanted to know about it, but I meet a lot of mums who desperately do.
So I'm a witch?
Bring it on.
http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/witches.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerit-quealy/forgotten-women-witches-h_b_859230.html
http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-witchcraft-and-witches.htm
Amen to you girl!
ReplyDeleteI'm an IBCLC, and personally I love the idea of being thought of as wise. If someone wants call me a witch, I don't think that's a bad thing.
I read that article and I found the tone of it defensive and misguided. If someone feels the need to lie to their healthcare provider, that is terribly sad. It's sad for the moms who gave up their magical superpower that is distinctly feminine. It also makes me sad that we as a culture, and those of us in the healthcare field, continue to fail women, their bodies, their babies and society by not being able to reach everyone through correct knowledge and education. If people really understood the science of breastfeeding medicine, formula companies would go bankrupt very quickly.
Breath of fresh air after reading that article this morning!
ReplyDeleteI rather liked the 'witches of breastmilk' tag too... am happy to be one :-)
ReplyDeleteExactly!!
ReplyDeleteI am as big an advocate of breastfeeding as anyone, but this article is silly. It confuses multiple issues as if they were one and does nothing to shine light on anything. The "male dominated" Church did not do anything to breastfeeding. The "male dominated" practice of medicine, while failing breastfeeding mothers recently, is also not the reason for the large drop in breastfeeding rates. Mixing these two issues with breastfeeding does nothing to help. Nor does bringing vague notions of sexism into the mix; it only makes breastfeeding advocates sound witchy, does nothing to bring men into a more supportive frame of mind, and certainly alienates some men who are sick and tired of being shat on for a history that was not of their making.
ReplyDeleteAlso ignored is the VERY complicated historical and cultural contexts surrounding breastfeeding (going back to at least the middle ages) as well as the economics of formula, breastfeeding, and the two-income economy.
Most unfortunately, it does nothing to address the issue in the article that it responds to, which is whether and how breastfeeding information should be given to women and whether the non-breastfeeder's potential guilt should have play in that decision making process. THAT would be a valuable thing to consider and take up. But this post barely mentions it, and then only at the end after conflating it with a host of non-related issues that the author clearly doesn't understand.
As a breastfeeding counsellor I visited a new mother. Her husband opened the door and called out to his wife, "the witch is here!" In fact he was very supportive of breastfeeding.
ReplyDeleteMy other car is a broom....
ReplyDeleteTS - I think you may have missed that Anne was reclaiming the term witch and as witches were the wise women who in times past may well have helped women overcome breastfeeding issues I think it's a link well made.
ReplyDeleteI love this post, thanks for putting such a positive spin on it!
ReplyDeleteExcellent!
ReplyDeleteI love this post!
ReplyDeleteAs a bit of a self confessed 'Earth Mother' and breastfeeding advocate I am not in the least offended or insulted by the term 'Breastfeeding Witch'.
As it's already been touched on, 'witch' just means 'wise woman' which was a lovely word until early Christians spread propaganda that witches were all child killers! Lol A bit like the more modern attitude to the 'disgusting practise of feeding ones young with ones breasts!'
I'm a bit of a nature revering Pagan Mama myself so I totally embrace my new title...
I'm a total Breastfeeding Witch!
Your blog is fantastic-thank you!
ReplyDelete