It's portable, hygienic, free and an incredible bonding experience, writes Emily Lawrence Gazal.
It's World Breastfeeding Week and bravely I will set forth to cafes, shopping centres and parks to publicly suckle my baby. I know this is common these days, but apparently my son has reached an age - one! - where it is not considered cool. As a friend who is happily breastfeeding her four-month-old said, "at his age, it looks weird".
Weird? Doesn't everyone know that breast milk is the most important source of nutrition for babies under 12 months? That it reduces the risk of infection and diseases such as diarrhoea, asthma, allergies and urinary tract infection as well as chronic disease in adulthood? That it improves IQ? And it helps protect the mother against particular cancers and osteoporosis.
The key to those bonuses is the length of feeding. Dr Patricia McVeagh, a pediatrician, notes: "When a wave of gastro goes through the child-care centres, the chance of a child catching it is proportionate to how long he was breastfed for." The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) says the cost to the community of "weaning 30 per cent of infants onto formula by three months of age could be around $290 million a year".
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