“If He Can Eat Turkey, then…”
Ah, I can picture it now. You are having a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. Your child actually eats their meal. You actually had a meal in peace. It is all wonderful…then you dare begin to nurse your child. Yes, your child may be older than what is stereotypically portrayed as “acceptable”, but you both have been enjoying and thriving from your breastfeeding experience.
So without you asking for their opinion, your relative pops in, “If he can eat turkey like that, then you do not need to be doing that anymore!”
You are filled with mixed emotions of, “is that true?”, “We have been enjoying this - it not just for their enjoyment.”, “I think that there is a lot of benefit for them still.”, and of course “No one asked for your damn opinion, Aunt Karen!”
Unfortunately, rarely is our reaction to this comment to let it run off our back, to smile, nod, and continue on with our nursing session. However, I want you to have the confidence to smile & wave and continue on with your motherhood journey.
Your Milk is Always Beneficial - Whether your baby is 2 weeks, 2 months, or 2 years old, your breastmilk is still providing your baby with a lot of balanced vitamins & nutrients. Nutrition is only one piece of the benefits of breastmilk. As your baby grows, they will no longer rely on your breastmilk for their sole nutrition, however, that is only one piece of the benefits of breastmilk.
Antibodies - The longer you breastfeed, the more antibodies you are introduced into your infant’s system. Your breastmilk’s antibodies change over time. As your body interacts with various diseases & illnesses your breastmilk will adjust to fight the immediate environment. Your child benefits from these antibodies no matter their age.
Nutritional Changes - From the moment your placenta is delivered, your milk begins to change. Going from colostrum to transition milk to mature milk, and then continuing to change over time. As your baby continues to age, their milk changes to meet their needs. The percentage of fats & proteins in breastmilk begins to increase, while the percentage of carbohydrates will decrease over time. This further supporting that your decision to extend your breastfeeding journey is supported biologically.
Anthropologically, Supported (1) - There are many different calculations, which one could run regarding anthropological adaptation, however, most calculations support humans breastfeeding well past 1 year of life and often past 2 years of life. Some suggest, “six times the length of gestation”, which would be around 4.5 years old. A Biological approach is investigating when mammals will typically double their birth weight and then nursing for 4x that amount of time. This biological approach still suggests that our babies should be nursed till 2.8-3.7 years of age.
But what about benefits for yourself? Breastfeeding is always so focused on the baby and the benefits it provides for our young, but extended breastfeeding has a lot of benefit for you.
Mental Health - As you progress through postpartum, your hormones are going through so many changes. A huge benefit to breastfeeding is it slows down the rate that our hormones change. Without breastfeeding, our estrogen levels would increase quickly, progesterone levels would increase quickly after a rapid decrease post birth, and oxytocin would not be released as readily. All of these fluctuations are sharp and aggressive without breastfeeding. However, as we breastfeed and slowly wean, our bodies are able to slowly adjust it’s hormonal levels to pre-pregnancy levels. This greatly helps us achieve stability in our mental health and reducing the risk of postpartum depression.
Reduced Chronic Disease Risk (2) - Extended breastfeeding assists in reducing your risk to chronic diseases, which include breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and type II diabetes. What is particularly exciting about this in terms of extended breastfeeding is it has been found that the longer women breastfeed, the greater their protection is of these diseases. Even though 6 months of breastfeeding is phenomenal, breastfeeding to 18 or 24 months of age will protect a mother from these diseases at a greater percentage.
Natural Family Spacing - Now the effectiveness of the LAM method decreases dramatically after your baby is 6mo old, many women are still able to rely on breastfeeding as a form of birth control past 6+ mo postpartum. Many women will utilize extended breastfeeding as a way to naturally space their children’s birth.
Understand, if you have begun your menstrual cycle you may not utilize breastfeeding as a form of birth control anymore.
These suggestions are merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits of extended breastfeeding. So whether you were seeking support for your baby’s benefit, your benefit, or simply some anthropological discussions on whether it is appropriate to continue breastfeeding - you should now be well-equipped to tell Aunt Karen that you and your baby are doing just fine!
We can have an entire other discussion regarding how to know when it is time to wean, but do understand that it is a joint decision. Some mothers will continue to let their babies breastfeed until they self-wean, other mothers have a specific end date in mind, and some times it fluctuates throughout their journey. Whenever you and/or your baby are done, it is okay to be done.
Aunt Karen though, she does not have a vote in the matter.
With love,
Antoinette C., CLC
An age-old question: What is the natural age of weaning?. Lactation Education Resources. (n.d.). https://www.lactationtraining.com/resources/blog/entry/an-age-old-question-what-is-the-natural-age-of-weaning
professional, C. C. medical. (2024a, July 12). Why breastfeed? let us count the reasons. Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/15274-benefits-of-breastfeeding