Nursing Babies - Darn You, Western Culture

So I've read all about the many benefits of nursing your baby, like for instance 250% less chance of respiratory infections & problems. I've been thinking about weaning Aaron, so I've been doing some reading about toddler nursing, and I've found some interesting things.

So the milk changes as they get older, and among other things, after the baby is over a year, the milk actually contains more antibodies to illnesses that toddlers are prone to get (like colds). It also contains high levels of the fats that we try to get our kids to eat in dairy products, which are so necessary for neurological development.

There are many more things in the milk, but here's the best one. There is a direct correlation between the length of time a child is nursed and his/her IQ. So: the longer a child is nursed, the higher their IQ.

So why are we pushing cow's milk on our kids when human milk is better? (Formula or just milk, organic or not!) Marketing. It's all about money! I read some infuriating articles about the formula industry and the people who are making billions off of parents (like me, I'm a sucker for marketing tricks). For more info on that, you can google the "Ban the Bags" campaign.

We all know that people do nasty things for money, but shortchanging kids of their intended intelligence? That's disgusting.

The other side of it is our society's unbelief in women's abilities. While I was pregnant and obsessively reading books about birth :), I read about a midwife (Ina May Gaskin) who said that white women can give birth too! What a ridiculous idea that other women can give birth but we can't. Lies. Pregnancy isn't an illness; birth isn't a disease; and our bodies can provide all the nutrition our babies - as many of them as we have! - need.

Thanks for reading. :)
Oh, and Mary, I think of you and Ben often. :)