“The Language of Breastfeeding: Diminishing Women in a “Modern” Age”

Original article

I have a couple of drafts of articles for American Mom on a topic near and dear to my heart; that of breastfeeding and early parenting, especially during the postpartum period. With each attempt to finish the articles I become stumped due to recent conversations and reading I’ve been doing on the topics.

It has taken me many stabs at writing an article regarding breastfeeding and the surrounding messages in 2024 to sort through this myself. If you’ve been focused primarily on the home fires, as well you should be, if you are in the thick of parenting young ones, perhaps some of my views may sound far fetched.

Here Goes: The Language of Breastfeeding

We humans do many things without thinking. Our families and culture dictate many of our life decisions. We don’t weigh every choice we make throughout life, that would be nearly impossible. We often do what is expected by those around us as well as what is dictated and typically done by others in our families and communities. The breastfeeding advocacy community has, however, always encouraged pregnant women to make a thoughtful and informed choice about how they plan to feed their infant. Armed with the facts of the benefits of breastfeeding for both mother and baby, Women Infant and Children program workers, La Leche League Leaders, Lactation Consultants, other nursing mothers, and select, well-informed physicians have presented why this early parenting decision is so very important to the health and development of a new baby. These discussions have raised the esteem of mothers-to-be and the value new mothers see in their new role.

This acknowledgment has raised the understanding of the importance of mothers in every season. For pregnant women, hearing about the high value placed on the choices they make for their families sheds light on their role as they enter into mothering with a new baby.

However, there have been changes in the discussions. As in the wider culture, there has been a shift happening within the the breastfeeding advocacy community and it is surfacing in the altered language of breastfeeding support resources. Official statements from long-esteemed organizations advocating for breastfeeding mothers are now colored by a new and altered language. Altered in ways meant to change the thinking of individuals, families and our culture.

There is a movement (has been for awhile) in the breastfeeding advocacy world to participate in the change to language now deemed “inclusive”. Mothers are no longer mothers, they are birthing people, or they are parents without a gender designation. The term breastfeeding is now coupled with the new and confusing term chestfeeding; women don’t give birth, parents do; and they breast/chestfeed or, very newly seen, bodyfeed.

Diminishing Mothers

While these new terms may include some individuals it certainly erases others. The word changes are now beyond the advocates of breastfeeding inclusion. It is being forced into the general population that this language change has taken place and should be utilized. The newly-released edition of the classic reference book published by the long-standing breastfeeding support and information organization La Leche League will be published with a new title. What has long been known as the quintessential breastfeeding resource ‘The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding’ will now be ‘The Art of Breastfeeding’.

Not a bad title in and of itself. At least if you don’t know the history of the publication and until you learn the long standing christened title of all previous editions. For those young women unaware of the history of this popular publication it may not seem a big deal; it is still an art, learned by each woman as she adapts to her life with a new baby. When informed of the publication’s history, they pause to incorporate and remark on the dismissal.

What’s more, lactation consultants are required to stay up-to-date with continuing education, learning about new research and understanding of the process of breastfeeding. Those courses now include the new and confusing language of breast/chestfeeding and in many cases the term chestfeeding takes first priority placement as chest/breastfeeding. Supposedly meant to be inclusive it is actually dehumanizing, devaluing, and erasing women in their role as mothers. Chests don’t make milk, breasts do.

Reading between the lines, it appears that within breastfeeding advocacy circles, breastfeeding information, advocacy and support has taken a backseat to what many would acknowledge as the prominent (leftist) mission of the day—that of “the revolution”. The concerns and issues of positive early parenting, bonding, and giving babies their very best healthy start in life is not the issue, the revolution is the issue. A revolution that will be easier to promote minus mothers whose first concern is their children.

Changing Language, Changing Thinking

Changes in language are meant to change thinking. Changing language to limit and control thinking restricts understanding and informed choice in every area of life. Mothering, early parenting, and breastfeeding vocabulary is no different. To understand any topic it is imperative to master the vocabulary of the subject. Making language fuzzy, makes understanding and thinking fuzzy. It is no different for the information surrounding early parenting. The changing of language is intentional and it is happening in every area of our culture, including in the lives of young families. Information and understanding about the value of thoughtful early parenting is being altered by altering the language and thinking of young parents.

The change in language is erasing mothers and the value of motherhood. The role of motherhood is specific and unique to women. The change in language is erasing the value of a mother’s role in early bonding. The value of a mother’s milk and the interaction between a nursing mother and her infant within this new language is meant to become more mechanical and less human.

Fortunately, the biological aspects of our bodies as women and as mothers stretch and inform beyond the physical. Making milk and mothering generally is a spiritual experience as well as a physical one. It is within that spiritual aspect of mothering that language so often fails. It often fails to describe the experience of love we have as women, mothering the children we nurture.

The opportunity to nurture a child as a mother and the opportunity to breastfeed as a woman, these are sacred gifts that should not be diminished. They are gifts that should not be dismissed with language changes or acts of harm in any way. Our language should reflect the sacred role of motherhood, always.

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I am the mom of three young adults and would have an empty nest if not for the last two years of Covid and lockdowns which brought my two sons back home for remote work. Homeschooling all three children was my focus for many years. Homeschooling gave me the opportunity to share in the growing learning process of my children and provided me the opportunity to learn along side them. I continue to be an avid reader and enjoy writing as well. I am also a lactation consultant and post partum doula. Interests that developed from my personal motherhood experiences. I have degrees in art and art therapy. I held a position as an Art Therapist in a family counseling agency before my husband and I began having children. While raising my family, I took a hiatus from making art and have recently returned to a variety of my own creative pursuits. Events in our world over the last several years have heightened my interest in history and politics. All of the above combined has led me to finding other women who share those interests as well as a desire to be more widely engaged and to americanmom.com.

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