News
Scrap ‘breast is best’ slogan says The Breastfeeding Network
28 Jun 2010
The BBC reports that the Breastfeeding Network is calling for the Department of Health to stop using the slogan “breast is best” because it puts breastfeeding on a pedestal. Lesley Backhouse, chair of the Breastfeeding Network, says that the slogan implies that breastfeeding your child is something special and points out that “breastfeeding is the only case where the biological norm is expressed as the exception rather than the rule.”
NHS leaflets about breastfeeding given to new mothers list the positives that can come from breastfeeding including protection against asthma, allergies, obesity and diabetes. A possible link between breast feeding and cognitive development has also been shown. And cognitive development lays the foundations that make speech and language development possible.
However, the Department of Health, while agreeing that breastfeeding does come with benefits, says that “breast is best” is not their slogan.
For more information about breastfeeding please visit the National Childbirth Trust website.
