Breastfeeding and attachment parenting - your thoughts

[awfulpersonme]

I've not posted on this board before but have lurked a lot.

I'm interested to see what you think about two things I have thought about a lot in recent weeks - breastfeeding and attachment parenting.

I breastfeed my 5 month old and as such was on a few Facebook groups for support. On these groups I have seen comments stating that women who ff should not have children, that formula should only be available on prescription for babies who need it medically, and asking for tips on how to persuade their female friends and relatives to breastfeed their babies. These groups are largely AP based.

So:

1. Is pressurising women to breastfeed essentially anti feminist? Isn't it just another way of telling us what we should and shouldn't do with our bodies, another way of making female bodies public property?

2. aren't a lot of the attachment parenting principles essentially quite anti-woman? Every AP group I've seen seems to place a mother's need for outside stimulation, sleep, and good mental health as far, far below the needs of her children (at all ages, not just newborns and young babies). The idea that you must be around your baby 24/7 just seems to me to be another way of keeping women firmly "in their place".

What do you all think??

Religion might not be needed by you. To say that religion is not needed is quite a statement. by whom is religion not needed?

There is this sort of "If God did not exist, then mankind would have to invent Him" type of argument.

Attachment parenting is something that can be done by both men and women.

What is anti-feminist is the way society is set up to default most parenting and childcare to women.

Breastfeeding is a choice, no one should make a person feel guilty for not being able to breastfeed but it really is quite unfeminist to deny women the ability to seek help and assistance to breastfeed their children.

"With regard to ap being niche or mainstream, I have found that the nhs have encouraged me to bf and to feed on cue and react to baby's needs, pick them up, hold them lots etc.
Then they come back at 6 and especially 12 months and look disapproving when you tell them you're still breastfeeding and haven't sleep-trained. I feel they talk the talk but don't walk the walk."

I agree with this, and I think it's more that they think everyone should do a load of stuff that actually no one will. no one really gets that you are still exclusively bf-ing a 6 month old and just about to give some food. they just don't believe it ever happens.

Most of the stuff around routine - based mothering puts emphasis on the mother being able to put the baby down and "get on" - in other words look after the house and her husband. this is usually hinted at but sometimes directly expressed. Most of the stuff around AP emphasises the wellbeing of the child, and the mother can go hang. There is no such thing as any remotely feminist mothering discourse as the mother is never treated as a person in her own right. The bomb-like arrival of an extremely demanding infant in her life is either to be accepted wholesale, such that for some, their health and identity and future will be shrapnel; or carefully managed and contained so that they woman remains an effective domestic servant to her husband.

I think how attatchment parenting works as a parent really depends on your personality.
It didn't really appeal to me because I didn't have enough patience, I like to be active and organised and I hated the feeling of not having time for myself, or not being in control of my own life.
I found a middle way. It's possible to give a baby plenty of love and attention whilst also following a routine (not too rigid) of feeds and putting down for naps.