Risky behavior

Health care and governmental institutions are very aware of the dangers of risky behaviour of adolescents and young adults and they engage themselves in broad, intense and sometimes confronting campaigns to fight this kind of behaviour. Directed towards parents of young children campaigns are used to minimised or perhaps even erase childhood risks (SIDS, shaken baby syndrome, vaccinations, overweight, …). Those campaigns don’t shy away from using the easy to trigger parental feelings of guilt and free, personal choice is not seen as a relevant factor in decision making. When, however, the question to breastfeed or not to breastfeed arises, those restriction of protecting parenting guilt and the freedom of personal choice start playing a significant role. Because what if a mother simply can’t breastfeed? Or if feeding her own child herself just doesn’t fit into her personal and social lifestyle? According to Stuebe not being breastfed increases morbidity and mortality risks for children in developed countries: more infections, more obesity in childhood, more diabetes 1 and 2, leukaemia and SIDS. Women who do not breastfeed don’t do themselves any health favour either; they increase their risks for premenopausal breast cancer, ovarian cancer, retained gestational weight gain, type 2 diabetes, myocardial infarction, and the metabolic syndrome. Quite harsh messages they seem. But worth telling, though. But what really has to be included is to support parents who do make the choice to breastfeed in order to optimise the chances they can work their choice and to have valid options for alternatives if apparently insurmountable problems arise.
Stuebe A: The Risks of Not Breastfeeding for Mothers and Infants. Rev Obstet Gynecol. 2009, 2(4):222–231.