A mum of two who still breastfeeds her four-year-old son has been branded disgusting by strangers.
Beccy Ashe, 35, from Liverpool, works as a breastfeeding support worker and has been breastfeeding her two children for a whole eight years.
The mother says although she gets judgemental stares from people in public, and dealt with the backlash online, she doesn’t care what others say.
Beccy said that she knew some people believed it was gross, or whatever, and that it was okay for everyone to have an opinion about it, and that she just asks that they be respectful, and she said she knows that it’s seen as odd, and of course, people can say what they want from behind the screen, but in person, she’s never had an adverse experience.
And that with most people, once she explains it to them, there’s no negativity, and they respect that this is a choice she’s made even if they don’t agree with it.
She said that she does sometimes get some stares, but usually if she’s in public she’s focused on her child, so she doesn’t peek to see what other people think about it.
Beccy currently breastfeeds her son Tobias twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, and he eats solid meals throughout the day.
She said that she always knew she was going to breastfeed, but she didn’t intend on doing it for this long when she was expectant with Daisy, and that the organisation that she now works for, Breastfeeding Support, she started with them when she had Daisy, and it was there that she was informed of all the advantages of breastfeeding, like how it lowers the risk of breast cancer.
She said that when she got to six months and was starting on solid foods, she had to decide to either change her onto formula or keep breastfeeding and that it didn’t make sense to stop, so decided to carry on until she was one and then introduce cow’s milk, but she never quit breastfeeding.
Beccy continued to breastfeed Daisy throughout her pregnancy with her second child, Tobias, and she said that with Tobias, obviously she had more experience, and she wasn’t concerned that she wouldn’t be able to produce milk, and she thought that if there was any reason she couldn’t breastfeed him, she would find donor milk or attempt to find someone else to wet nurse.
This is of course totally bizarre to keep breastfeeding your children like they’re still infants, and it’s a bit like putting nappies on them when they’re eight years old.
I certainly wouldn’t be a fan, but she’s doing precisely what breasts were intended for, and I guess it’s better than drinking cow’s milk, produced from another species.
Ancient civilisations have breastfed for thousands of years and it was only in western cultures that we were programmed to be revolted by it, which is sad, and this woman isn’t hurting anyone and she indeed loves her children, and she should just be left to get on with it. However, mother nature provides a big clue when a child should be weaned off the breast, they’re called teeth!
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 