Campaigners are asking the government to stop using the ‘breast is best’ slogan because it is not effective in encouraging mothers to breast feed. Instead, the Breastfeeding Network wants breastfeeding to be represented as normal and not as a special act as the slogan portrays.
Research has shown that babies that are breastfed are less likely to battle obesity both as children and adults. The Department of Health responded to the campaigners by stating it is only following guidelines set out by officials.
Chair of the Breastfeeding Network, Lesley Backhouse, wrote to the Department of Health requesting that they change the message. She stated that breastfeeding needs to be taken out of the spotlight because it implies that the practice is special whereas it is actually the physiological norm.
Backhouse continued to say that breastfeeding is the only practice that is portrayed as an exception to the biological nature of humans even though it is not. She explained that the focus of any campaign should be that it is a normal practice that is both easy and free.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health stated that it agrees that there are many benefits to breastfeeding, but it stated that the slogan is not theirs.
Breastfeeding can not only help prevent obesity, but it also has been scientifically proven to lower many risks such as respiratory and ear infections as well as guard against the development of asthma, allergies, and diabetes as the child develops once born.
