It's strange, being a male working at an organization that supports breastfeeding. In the six months I've been here, my world perspective has been challenged and stretched in many and unexpected ways. When I was asked to write an article addressing breastfeeding and ecology, I admit I had no idea how the two might be connected. Breastfeeding is such an intimate relationship between a mother and her child that it was hard for me to see what impact this relationship could have on the global ecosystem. A little research opened my eyes.
Human milk is the ultimate in renewable resources.
It's there as soon as the baby arrives, in the quantity the baby needs, for as long as the mother and baby want it. Not only that, but in most cases it doesn't require any preparation on the mother's part. The baby is put to the breast and the milk starts to flow. I heard that one pregnant mother, unaware of this simplicity, called La Leche League International Headquarters to ask when she should get the holes poked in her nipples so that she could breastfeed her baby. I apologize to this woman for sharing this, but Western society has become so mechanized that the question makes a weird sort of sense.