Mum who still breastfeeds her son at four years old says she has no plans to stop
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A mum who still breastfeeds her son at four years old says she has no plans to stop.
Journalist Allison Yarrow says breastfeeding allows her to 'connect and communicate' with her son and that it's something they 'do once or twice a day'.
The author of Birth Control: The Insidious Power of Men Over Motherhood has also made it clear that she wouldn't 'still be doing it if I didn't enjoy it'.
According to the NHS 'it’s recommended that babies should consume only breast milk for around the first 6 months of their lives'.
After this period it says it's fine that babies continue breastfeeding for '2 years and beyond, alongside eating other foods'.
"We haven't stopped breastfeeding because breastfeeding works for us," Yarrow told People.
"We still breastfeed because it's a way to connect with each other. We feel good. It's intimacy. It's looking into each other's eyes. It's cuddling. It's having a physical connection. And that strengthens our connection in general."
She explained: "Our culture really doesn't support women doing things with their bodies that they want to be doing, so that certainly extends into breastfeeding.
"There's really poor research about extended breastfeeding. There isn't a lot of it.
"And women and people who give birth are really hampered in their quest to breastfeed after their babies are born.
"We know that the majority of people who give birth want to breastfeed, but most don't even meet their own breastfeeding goals because accessing lactation support is incredibly difficult.
"Often it's not covered by insurance or Medicaid, and people have to pay out-of-pocket and find somebody to support them in this way when they're already very vulnerable recovering from childbirth and caring for a newborn."
The mum says there are far more advantages than disadvantages when it comes to breastfeeding.
"It's actually not very much of a commitment. I mean, it's just a few minutes a day, if that, and it's something I want to be doing too," she continued.
"But I'm a human being, I have limits. Sometimes I want to give someone a hug and sometimes I don't want to give someone a hug, and the same goes for breastfeeding.
"And if I don't want to, I just say no. So I'm also teaching him boundaries.
"It's mostly something we now do at home, and I am very open about still breastfeeding...with my family and friends, with my neighbours and his preschool teachers.
"People are aware of it because I find that it's really important to normalize this and to make it known that it's absolutely up to mothers and their kids what they want to do in general, but certainly around something like breastfeeding."
Topics: Parenting
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