"Jag kunde inte amma, precis som min mamma"

Breastfeeding is a biological function that works for the vast majority of women who have at least one breast. It is unusual to not be able to produce milk if you have support around you, access to evidence-based information and want to breastfeed. Breastfeeding is also very much a cultural phenomenon and it is deeply connected to our body image, unconscious beliefs and our culture.
If your mother breastfed you, you probably have an idea that it is possible to breastfeed, which gives you greater confidence in your body. And although it is not possible to measure how much milk a baby gets during breastfeeding, you probably trust that it is enough.

I often hear parents say that they had too little milk or that they "couldn't breastfeed". Maybe it's been like that for older women in your family too, or maybe you haven't had support and access to information on how to make breastfeeding work. Sometimes it's also because you didn't want to breastfeed but didn't dare to say so for fear of not being respected for your decision.

Many parents enter parenthood with a cautious desire to breastfeed if it works. But breastfeeding is not something that either works or doesn't work. It takes time to learn to breastfeed, and help and support are needed during that time. If you don't want to breastfeed or if you want to breastfeed partially, you should be able to make that decision on informed grounds and not because you haven't received support or help. And why is it important? Well, because it also goes the other way, if you leave the breastfeeding period with the feeling that you couldn't, even though you somehow wanted to, it affects your confidence in your body and your parenting.

Ignorance and market forces (wink to the baby food industry) have destroyed many new mothers' confidence in themselves and their bodies in recent decades. We can only heal by offering evidence-based information and ongoing support to all new parents. Because breastfeeding is important, on many more levels is from a public health perspective.

If you are pregnant and want to prepare for your breastfeeding journey, no matter what you want it to look like, check out my course Pregnant & giving birth together.