Baby with Large Breast Offensive?
November 11th, 2006
MSNBC posted this article about a recent BabyTalk magazine cover.
“I was SHOCKED to see a giant breast on the cover of your magazine,” one person wrote. “I immediately turned the magazine face down,” wrote another. “Gross,” said a third.
It seems as if these readers weren’t complaining about a sexually explicit cover, but rather one of a baby nursing. Nursing on the cover of a parenting magazine. Is this yet another sign that Americans are squeamish over the sight of large breasts?
One mother who didn’t like the cover explains she was concerned about her 13-year-old son seeing it. “I shredded it,” said Gayle Ash, of Belton, Texas, in a telephone interview. “A breast is a breast — it’s a sexual thing. He didn’t need to see that.”
Notice how the words “Giant Breast” are used in conjunction with “Shocked,” “Gross,” and “Sexual.” Is this the message we want boys and girls growing up with?
What might be most interesting to note, is that Babytalk is a free magazine whose readership is overwhelmingly mothers of babies. Yet in a poll of more than 4,000 readers, a quarter of responses to the cover were negative, calling the photo inappropriate.
Studies suggest that children who were exclusively breastfed for 6 months have IQs 5 to 10 points higher than children who were formula fed.
Human milk contains at least 100 ingredients not found in formula.
And it is interesting to note that no babies are allergic to their mother’s milk. Never happens.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20805743-2703,00.html
Happens all the time!
http://www.glamourmom.com/ Has good tops for large chested moms who nurse. I am 36E and they worked very well.
Sad day when mothers think their own bodies are gross and shocking. Terrible lesson to teach little girls and boys. Breasts are sexual because people make them sexual. It is OUR fault for that body image. We need to take control.
Breastfeeding is always better for the baby, and the best milk it can get. If you can breastfeed, you should do it. The nutrition elements are in breast milk and so is the right amount of fats and acids. Most pediatricians agree that nothing is better.
You never know whats going on in someone else’s head. People who find the cover of this magazine offensive must be phobic of the human body.
Breastfeeding is natural and beautiful. if it was so bad, we wouldn’t physically be able to. God gave us this ability and people need to grow up a little. It reminds me of kids that run around the playground yelling “eww, coodies.”
Starbucks Naked Coffee Logo - Another example of people who worry about breasts too much. Can we please find something better to do with our time?
Quick tip: Shopboppy.com has great feeding pillows for mothers with large breasts. I am not affiliated with that site, just a happy customer.
Breast-fed babies have a stronger ability to go up the social ladder than those given cow’s milk, a new study says, and the longer a baby is breast-fed, the better chances it will have to succeed.
The study drew on the success and failures of 1,414 U.K. babies born in the 1920s and 1930s, a population now in their seventies. The study, to be published soon in the Archives of Diseases of Childhood, suggests that the children who were breast-fed were 41 percent more likely to rise up at least one level in the social ladder compared to others who were fed cow’s milk, the only alternative at the time.
A study in the Lancet, a British medical journal, suggests that breastfeeding raises a preterm babies’ IQ by up to 5 points, and other studies have correlated breastfeeding with higher intelligence, but the findings contradict other research: a study from the Medical Research Council published in 2006 indicate breast-fed babies had a higher level of intelligence not from the milk but from other factors like a more active and stimulating home environment.
“One of the most consistent findings in the published literature on the long-term impact of infant-feeding is that breastfeeding is associated with improved neurocognitive development, which could influence future educational and occupational success and hence social mobility” the researchers wrote in the study.
Consumer health advocate Mike Adams said that the natural nutrients found in breastfeeding make it an optimal choice.
“Although few people will say the obvious, what’s really happening here is that cow’s milk impairs the intelligence of babies,” Adams, author of the book Grocery Warning, said. “Human breastmilk contains the nutrition to build healthy, peak-performance nervous systems and cognitive function in human beings, and milk intended for cows simply lacks that nutrition.”
“Mothers who feed their infants cow’s milk are, in effect, making it more difficult for their children to succeed in life,” he added.
The lead researcher of the University of Bristol study, epidemiologist Richard Martin, said one caveat is that while breast-fed babies moved up the social ladder more than their bottle-fed counterparts, both groups were capable of doing so: half of the bottle-fed babies moved up the social ladder, but nearly 6 out of 10 of breast-fed babies did the same thing.
Among British women, 76 percent do breastfeed when a baby is born, but most wean their children to bottles within the first four months.
http://www.newstarget.com/021639.html And there is this article: http://www.newstarget.com/021623.html
I often shop at the VitaminShoppe stores and get nothing but excellent service and advice from their staff. (always loading me up with green tea products)
It is not often that I see a company post something as informative and helpful as this Article on Breastfeeding.
Remember that VitaminShoppe is in the business of selling products. Speaking out against a formula or supplement is brave and worth my respect.
Let us all praise VitaminShoppe for their honesty!
Here are some tips to help large breasted mothers feed their babies.
Feeding Your Child With Large Breasts.
“I never felt I could be a good nursing mother, as I was so uncomfortable with my big breasts. I was afraid I would be too self-conscious to nurse in public. However, as soon as my baby started to nurse, I felt good about my breasts for the first time in my life; finally they were useful.” These are the words of one large-breasted mother reflecting on her breastfeeding experience. She is fortunate to have overcome her negative feelings about her large breasts so that she could have a positive nursing experience.
Sounds like these women need to read your website Sara Churchill !
Hope this helps!
My wife harbored deep fears about breast-feeding our first daughter. Six weeks into the pregnancy her chest size grew noticeably larger every day. I purchased lots of quality moisturizer to help reduce her itching and reduce the appearance of her stretch marks. I kept telling her that breast is best and her doctors worked with us to show her comfortable cradle positions that made feeding our daughter easy.
Men need to stick with their wives through all of pregnancies miraculous changes. Be active with your doctors and be willing to learn everything you can.
More BreastFeeding Information
Good information about the nutritional benefits of mothers milk.
“A breast is a breast - its a sexual thing” Oookkk I dont think that the baby sees it that way. But of course who cares what the baby thinks its a parenting magazine not a baby magazine…
Hey, I have an idea! Airlines let mothers breastfeed their babies in a discreet way. Why not put a blank over baby and mother? Would that be discreet enough?
But back to the opening post, “the giant gross sexual breast”. Being Babytalk a magazine read by nursing mothers I wonder, how can they even consider the sexual side of the matter? I can´t believe they could feel shocked for such a reason. I thought, perhaps they were airhead women, but gods, 4000 of them!
I think breasts can be sexual things, but one should not view these things alone. There exists a context well determined by the name of the magazine.
Ridiculous. Mothers acting like immature schoolkids. There is nothing sexual about such a picture. It’s a mother nursing her child. It’s a powerful image that I’d expect mothers to understand. Hell, even I get it and I’m a guy.
One mother says that she didn’t want her 13 year old son to see it. What does she expect? That her son will be perverted by such an image? Oh, please.
People can be such prudes. A breast is only a sexual thing when it’s portrayed as such. If you see something sexual in a baby being breast-fed, you’ve got problems.
Breasts are primary sexual caharacteristics that differentiate between men and women. It’s not unheard of for women to be sexually arroused from stimulation of the breast. Often men find breasts sexually attractive. So one could argue that breasts are sexual. Follow that logic and a baby breast feeding has a sexual component to it. That’s all fine and good. Where I think the problem lies is people’s hang-ups about sex.
Without it none of us would be here. It is an integral part of our biology. People need to lighten up.
For those interested, we were emailed this link to a study that shows that weight gain during pregnancy was not found to be a significant factor in ptosis - ie sagging breasts.
“Although the amount of sagging in the breasts appears to increase with each pregnancy, we’ve found that breastfeeding does not worsen the effect.”
We get emails all the time from women who worry about large breasts sagging after pregnancy. Rest easy girls - stay healthy, never smoke, and you will be just fine!