728x90
my iParenting
From Our Sponsors
e-newsletters
Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters

new terms of use
new privacy policy
award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Home › Articles › Breastfeeding Advocacy › Breastfeeding: The Next Generation

Breastfeeding: The Next Generation

Passing on the Importance of Breastfeeding

By Teri Brown

Pages:  1  2  3  

If you ask a group of women why it's important to be a breastfeeding advocate long after your last baby is weaned, you will get many different answers, but one idea shines through all of them. If you teach the next generation the importance of breastfeeding, they will breastfeed.

This is a subject that Lisa Betancourt, a mother of three from McMinnville, Ore., is passionate about. "I want my children to know the importance of breastfeeding, because I want them to breastfeed their babies," she says. "It is the perfect food for babies, and I want my future grandchildren to get the best."

Brenda Brownlee, mother of three from Beaverton, Ore., agrees. "I just hope that the next generation will study out the pros and cons of breastfeeding," she says. "Mothers should make sure their children understand the importance of breastfeeding because not only does breastfeeding allow for a bond to form between a mother and baby that cannot be formed through formula feeding, it also has significant health advantages to both mother and baby."

Mother: The Perfect Position
Elizabeth Reifsnider, professor and associate dean of research for the University of Texas' nursing school, feels mothers are in a perfect position to pass on the importance of breastfeeding to the next generation. "Moms have a great deal of influence on what their children think of health practices, what they think is normal or abnormal, what is good to do and what is harmful," she says. "If moms let their children know the whole time the children are growing up that breastfeeding is the best way to feed babies, they will be more likely to decide to breastfeed or [if boys] to encourage their wives to breastfeed. Boys need to know that breast is best as well as girls. Children should be taught that breastfeeding is the norm – that's how babies were designed to be fed – and that bottle feeding is only a second choice, to be used if breastfeeding can't work out."


Pages:  1  2  3  

Want to see more?

Comments

There are no comments for this article yet.Be the first to add a comment.

Post As:
Enter your comment below:
Title
Comment Text
CAPTCHA
Please note that any comments submitted become the property of Disney Family / iParenting and can be edited and posted at our discrection.