Breastfeeding

Natural term breastfeeding: ten mothers share t...

Ann Owen hopes to support other mothers through her photographs My first born, my daughter, arrived after a traumatic birth. I had dreamt of a natural water birth, but instead I ended up having an epidural, an episiotomy and a forceps delivery. I remember feeling so sad that my birth plan had gone out the window, but I found tremendous comfort in the fact that breastfeeding came naturally for us. From the first moment the nurse finally laid her on my chest, she latched on, and from then on, breastfeeding became a part of our everyday. To me it’s the most natural and most normal thing I could possibly be doing.I knew it wouldn’t last forever, but I wanted to continue to nurse her until she chose to stop. Anthropologist Kathy Dettwyler’s research suggests that the normal and natural duration of breastfeeding is between two and a half and seven...