By Stefania Giraldi
Can a woman over 40 be too old to breastfeed?
“A woman over 40 is too old to breastfeed! Her milk is NOT good enough and she is doing a disservice to her baby, who would be better off formula fed”
Really?
I am sure you are all familiar with the “too old to breastfeed” remark, BUT have you ever heard it in relation to the MOTHER?
Last week I took to my Facebook page Mama’s word, after yet another uneducated comment on breastfeeding mothers left me appalled.
These two women were going on about how, in their opinion, a 42-year-old mother they know is too old to breastfeed! “Her milk is certainly NOT nutritious enough and she should be formula feeding her baby instead.”
I am a mother of two, currently still breastfeeding my three-year-old daughter. My son was also breastfed up to the age of three, until a few months after my daughter was born. I tandem nursed, breastfed in public, during my son and daughter’s christening, anywhere, anytime. After 6 consecutive years of nursing, I am very familiar with judging looks and whispered comments, I heard it all.
Or so I thought until that day at the doctor that is…
Please see below my original post:
Hello Mamas,
I shared this post yesterday in a breastfeeding group I am a member of, and I got an OVERWHELMING response.
Just when I thought I HEARD it all about BREASTFEEDING!!
🤨🤨
Hello ladies,
after 6 consecutive years of Breastfeeding my children ( currently bf my three years old) I though NO comments could ever SHOCK me anymore on the topic. And yet someone managed to do just that, SHOCK me with some uneducated opinion about a breastfeeding mother.
I was at a doctor’s appointment when I overheard this conversation between the two ladies sitting next to me…
I am sure you are all familiar with the ” too old to breastfeed” remark, BUT have you ever heard it in relation to the MOTHER???
That’s right, these two ladies were going on about how a woman they knew, who is 42 years old, was, in their opinion, too OLD to breastfeed!! And how her milk is probably not GOOD enough because of her age, to the disadvantage of the baby. A baby who they though would have been better off formula fed instead.
REALLY? Whaaaat? I was fuming.
😡
I kid you NOT, a few minutes later my daughter climbs on my lap wanting the boob ( talk about right timing), and needless to say, I granted her wish immediately.
NOW, I am not one that looks for confrontations or arguments, but I COULDN’T RESIST: obviously the ladies noticed I was breastfeeding ( wasn’t hiding), I turn to them and I tell them:
“By the way, I am 44 years old, 45 next June and my milk is perfect!”
The look on their face, priceless.
😏
Sorry, I felt good!
What would you have done?
Since this post was published, I started receiving tons of supporting messages and requests to share it.
“You could never be too old to breastfeed but there is a time where you should stop acting 12 with gossip and uneducated criticism,” one person wrote.
Another commented: “I would have done the same thing. Two thumbs up to you.”
“I like the fact that you gave them a surprise, thumbs up mama. I would do this too.”
Of course, the odd negative comment was present as well:
Someone claimed to be “freaked out” at the sight of a three-year-old still breastfeeding.
Someone else believed my response to those women was NOT as perfect as the article’s HEADLINE stated…
There was even a person that questioned the “authenticity” of the conversation, implying that the fact didn’t really happen and I just made it up, in order to benefit from the attention.
To quote this person’s words: “Of course this conversation took place because she said it had, and of course the breastfeeding army have now given her the attention she needs for her blogging.”
See next page for the rest…
Hi there, thanks for sharing such amazing post with us. Really a useful one. Keep sharing.
Just found this archived article. My mom just called to tell me she was in conversation with a lactation consultant a few days ago. The woman was FLABBERGASTED to learn that I was able to breastfeed my twins successfully…. due to my advanced maternal age. My twins were born at 34 weeks… exactly 3 weeks before I turned 50!
While I had to take advantage of the hospital’s donor breast milk program (the twins came emergency c-section, so I had to really work at getting my milk to come in), I have strictly breastfed from the day I left the hospital. Mama friends who came over to my house to help with the twins joked that my stored milk in the fridge looked like buttermilk!..lol.. I’m 5 months in and my twins have grown from 4.5 lbs to 14.5lbs over that time. The twins actually outpaced the preemie growth charts, so my pediatrition is just measuring them against babies that were born at term. As far as production goes, I’m averaging about 1-1/2 liters of milk a day (I pump in addition to breastfeeding, which is how I came to that estimate).
I have no idea why anyone – let alone a lactation consultant – would suggest that I’m “lucky” I have any milk at all. And I would gladly participate in any studies gauging the quality of breastmilk from women of an advanced age. Women HALF my age said their breastmilk looked almost blue, it was so thin. It seems there is a staggering amount of misinformation out there. And sheepeople tend to repeat whatever they hear (or think they heard) in passing instead of researching it themselves. Thank you for this article & broaching the agism subject in relationship to breastfeeding. It was never my goal to be a 2nd time mom at 50, but it’s how the chips fell for us. I wouldn’t trade our girls for the world. I’m always disappointed by anyone who feels it’s their ‘obligation’ to point out that we’re too old to be parents. Whatever… I prefer to believe that the haters are just jealous of my ability to handle twin infants and a 5yo like a boss, regardless of age.
I gave birth to our youngest, thw 6th, child at 46 years old.
To start with, I married at 29, gave birth at ages 30,32,34,37,39 ans 46. All natural birth and blessing indeed that I was able to breastfed them all. Our youngest took 4 years before he finally stopped being breastfed. I had to force him, though.
After being away for almost 2 weeks from him, I found out that I still produced milk. But I had to wean our youngest because he was too old already.
This is my story.
If I’d be given the chance to breastfeed again, I will do it joyfully for our first grandchild.