“Formula as ‘medicine' only!”

With the return of the importance of breastfeeding from the mid 1980’s onward, after over half a century of infant formula promotion, mums are increasingly becoming aware of how important breastmilk is for the development and growth of their babies.

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This return to nature must be gauged with a reality check on how some of the other cofactors play out around the beginning of breastfeeding after a child’s birth.

Breastfeeding is supposed to be a ‘natural’ and ‘normal’ continuum after birth. However, labour and birth themselves aren’t that ‘natural’ and ‘normal’ anymore with the use of induction citing reasons such as delay beyond estimated due date, when ‘naturally’ pregnancies can have a term of 40 to 42 weeks. Due to the use of labour-inducing medications, as a cascade of events, it may become ‘normal’ to use pain medication such as oxytocin, epidural etc, and then perhaps the use of vacuum and forceps may become necessary to assist birth.