mothers who choose not to breastfeed are accepting an unknown level of risk on behalf of each specific child. For some children, not being breastfed may have no lasting significant impact, but for others it will mean illness or even death. It is difficult to understand how denying this ambiguity (by claiming that formula-feeding carries no risks at all), or claiming that breastfeeding is oppressive, contributes to woman’s “sense of bodily, emotional, and psychological autonomy.” On the contrary, withholding information, or misleading women about the consequences of the choices they make, is intensely paternalistic and anti-feminist. A woman whose wants for “a sense of bodily, emotional, and psychological autonomy” are so intense that she would consider risking her child’s health and cognitive development to meet them may well decide against having children at all – which should be her choice to make.

Benefits of breastfeeding ‘being oversold by the NHS” – Times Online.

For evidence of how deeply flawed this article is:

mothers who breastfed had a different outlook from those who did not and were more likely to follow advice on all health issues.

What, like the advice to give artificial milk as the panacea of all ills? The insistence on having your baby weighed every week? The suggestion that night-waking at 4 months means your baby is ready for solids? I’m sure there is probably some evidence out there showing that mums who have less exposure to health professionals are more likely to breastfeed for longer. Or even the other way round.

Bye-bye Bottle: Breastfeeding Baby Dolls are Here | Thingamababy.

Honestly, I don’t know where I stand on this.

“In addition to the short-term issues of hygiene and safety, it is possible that errors in the measurement and over concentration of bottle feeds may contribute to overfeeding, rapid infancy weight gain and later obesity.

However “it was possible that the reason for this symptom may not have been intolerance but overfeeding,” the researchers said..

I do not know if I am being the most enormous wuss. I’m not particularly nervous about the op, but virtually everyone I talk to says to me, oh yes, I had that done, it took me x days/weeks/months to get over it, where x = anything from 1 day to countless months. Anyway, the thing I feel wussy about is that I’m utterly miserable with the knee pain. I know this isn’t the worst pain in the world; after all, I’ve given birth. But that’s different; that was positive pain and I knew what to do with it.

And then, my stepdad is in so much constant pain that he has to inject himself with morphine. What kind of life is that? He never gets to sleep much, despite all the contraptions and gadgets that my mum acquires in the hope of easing his nights just a little bit. I’m pretty sure I slept last night, once the boy finally settled down (around 2:30, maybe?), until 7am. That’s twice this week he has slept until significantly later than 6am, and most unusual; but his nights have been very unsettled. We are actually going to have to set an alarm tomorrow, as I have to be delivered to the hospital for 7am.

So I should just take ibuprofen and quit my moaning, and look forward to a speedy recovery.