Why Some Women Wean their Babies Early
We see breastfeeding or bottle-feeding tasks as normal and commonplace activities. Mothers in many places in the world do it multiple times a day for a number of months until their babies wean on their own or when they initiate weaning a toddler. In fact, women who breastfeed have to know which foods to avoid while breastfeeding; they also need to understand how to perform breastfeeding with implants. There are complications associated with this seemingly easy task of breastfeeding.
The World Health Organization specifies exactly when to introduce solids to babies -- that is after the babies have reached six months of age. At that point of their growth, their internal digestive system can already process solid food stuffs. Moreover, when a child reaches the age of six months, the nutrients in milk are not sufficient anymore to sustain their proper development.
But some women choose to wean their babies earlier than the recommended six months of age for the baby. Here are some of the reasons (aside from medical conditions that prevent mothers from breastfeeding their babies) women decide to wean their babies early.
One, the woman’s husband or partner possesses a negative view when it comes to breastfeeding. There are men who think that a woman's breasts are sexual organs. It sounds weird, but there are cases wherein the partner does not want a baby to get near the mother’s breast because of baseless jealousy and inability to understand that it is a feeding act.
Two, the friends or the family members are unsupportive of breastfeeding. Since bottle feeding is the norm, breastfeeding has a negative connotation. Breastfeeding in public can also be an issue. Some women are not comfortable. Other people around publicly breastfeeding women may not feel comfortable with the idea as well.
Three, a woman’s history of sexual abuse prevents her from breastfeeding. One out of every five American women has been abused sexually during her childhood. An estimated twenty percent of those women show symptoms by the time they become adults. Although some sexually abused women refuse to breastfeed because they just cannot bear the thought of even doing so, there are those who consider breastfeeding as a healing experience for prior sexual abuse.
Finally, the lack of knowledge among health care providers can also make a woman wean her baby early. There are doctors who take a neutral stance to breastfeeding, and they neither recommend it nor discourage it. Some doctors don’t know the dangers of infant formula, so they recommend bottle-feeding. Thus, the mother will not get any strong professional opinion to either breastfeed or to bottle-feed. |
