AUSPICIOUS health bodies around the globe insist on promoting the concept of “breast is best” to a level where it has become akin to religious dogma and questioning it equivalent to heresy. Exclusive breast feeding is advocated for at least the first six months of life, yet by this time less than 1% of UK mums are adhering to this guideline. Does this make them bad mothers? Certainly not. Have the benefits of breast feeding been overplayed? More than likely.

Breast feeding wasn’t always heavily promoted. For those born in the 1950-60s, formula feeding was greatly encouraged, with messages that breast feeding was old fashioned and demeaning. Yet this changed around the 1990s and since then there has been a significant drive toward everyone breast feeding.

Studies have gone to task regarding the supposed benefits short and long term for baby and mother, such that you could be convinced that not breast feeding is denying your child the best start in life. Indeed, I expect that is how many new mums feel.

Perhaps the biggest overegging of the pudding is the claim that breast feeding results in higher IQs. It was argued that breast feeding resulted in a 4-point higher IQ. Yet we know that breast feeding mums tend to be older and from a higher socioeconomic status. A sibling study, directly comparing children in the same household showed that an infant who was breast fed had an IQ less than half a point greater than one who was bottle fed, a negligible difference.

In terms of long-term benefits including lower levels of cholesterol, diabetes, risk of heart disease and cancer, both for mother and baby, again the evidence is not strong enough to argue breast feeding is a cause of reduced ill health.

Aspects of breast feeding not often discussed are that it is incredibly hard work when a woman is already at a point of great emotional vulnerability and that if breast feeding is pursued exclusively yet is not working, there are significant risks to the child.

No one can deny the benefits of breast feeding, but arguments that it is “the best”, or the “natural” way of feeding, do little to advance sensible discussion, or allow new mothers to make an informed decision. Choosing not to breast feed, or indeed commencing and then switching to formula is not a “failure to breast feed”, and all mothers and babies should be supported as their needs require, without judgement, to truly give the best start in life.