The Bay Area is a cradle of environmentalism and a region with a rich trove of health and medical research and resources. In this blog, we’ll report on the deepening understanding of how the places we inhabit and the lifestyles we adopt contribute to our own health and the health of our communities.
More than a hundred women and children — and a handful of men — rallied outside of Oakland's City Hall on Thursday to promote the benefits of breastfeeding.
Holding hands and pushing strollers, they chanted: "Breastmilk is the best milk. It’s good for me. It’s good for you. It’s good for your baby too. So give ‘em the boob!"
The rally, one of several World Breastfeeding Week events around the Bay Area, included Oakland city officials, moms, lactation counselors — and supportive spouses.
“While women are the primary providers, they need the support of a husband or boyfriend,” said Larry Hancock, one of the few men in attendance.
Participants encouraged women to nurse with pride.
“Some people shy away from breastfeeding, because they don’t want to be exposed,” said Tanzania Cole, 24, who breastfed both of her two young daughters. “I used to be like that. But I’m not going to starve my baby,” she said.
© The Bay Citizen, 2012
Frank Snapp
The benefits of breast feeding in this age when human breast milk is at its MOST toxic are dubious at best.
Guess where higher order animals bioaccumulate Plutonium, cesium, radioactive iodine, strontium, polonium, americium, technitium, tritium,DDT,BP-A, Dioxin, etc? in the human fat and lymph cells mostly. Guess where milk comes from? Does milk concentrate toxins? Yes. So along with the dose of mom's, also dubious and often inadequate these days, anti-bodies, the breastfeeding baby is getting a motherlode of immune system and cellular reproduction DESTROYING super toxins in super concentrations. Don't want your baby to die of SIDS or your fetus to be stillborn, post Fukushima? Don't breast feed. In pre-1940 (pre-industrial neuro-toxin foundations of modern toxic chemical use in food and industrial production) and in pre-1950's (pre-most above ground nuclear testing), breast feeding may have had some merrits. Now, it's for the ignorant and over-romanticize motherhood without rationally analyzing either the scientific or the moral bases for motherhood. Uhm, why would people be breeding when the earth has 7B people and the biosphere is DYING through anthropogenic thermal maximum and related mass extinctions as a result? Give me a break. Wake the heck up.
Martha McAfee
Frank,
You've got to be kidding or else work for a formula company. Do you think formula is free from the "modern toxic chemical use in food and industrial production"? As the mother of four who breastfed all of my children for varying lengths of time (from 4 months to a year), I can assure you that breast feeding is the absolute best nutrition for babies. A child grows in the womb, drawing all support from the mother's body - do you really think breast feeding would result in exposure to more toxins after birth than before?
June Ko-Dial
oh brother! only a male would go against breastfeeding. it has been proven over and over again that the best thing you can do for your baby is breast feed them. there is NO connection between SIDS and breastfeeding! men just don't like seeing women feed their babies in the most natural way. IT MAKES THEM UNCOMFORTABLE!! waa waa oh well get over it. we need more women to breastfeed their babies!