Part 1: Susu Ibu.com International Lactation Conference

Salam,

Alhamdulillah, Praises to Allah for giving me the opportunity to attend this conference. Since Day 1, I was nothing but amazed at the wealth of knowledge I was getting for the fee I paid (I am saying this because I rarely ever attend conferences, especially ones that cost over Rm15!)

And when I say wealth of knowledge, I really would like to highlight that the talks were in fact very, very informative (very, very detailed) and told by speakers who were very, very passionate about their subject.

Having said so, it would be somewhat impossible for me to include them all here (I don't intend to attempt doing so anyway) but I do intend to share the bits which were most meaningful to me; and I do mean bits ;-p

The following statement enlightened the darkness of my mind on the very last day, but seemed to makes most sense to me (originally related by one of the international speakers in her talk-Suzanne Cox*):

"For thousands of years, thousands of women were 'uneducated' (as opposed to modern women) and THEY breastfed successfully, but educated women of the 21st century in fact find it very hard to breastfeed!"

What does this mean? And what does this say about being 'educated' and 'modern education'?

To put it in a simple way, it is because breastfeeding ACTUALLY COMES QUITE NATURALLY and isn't rocket science. But breastfeeding became a thing of the past, because as the years go by; what used to be natural has been replaced by a 'new natural': what used to be the norm has been replaced by a new norm.

Suzanne Cox, Diana West and Dr. Jack Newman all breathed the same mantra: Breastfeeding used to be the norm; it was natural and there was never any other option and even when there was; bottle-feeding used to be AN OPTION; the unnatural thing to opt out for.

But the norm has changed now.

Because formula-feeding has become the norm and breastfeeding is as if the unnatural 'option'.

So women now choose to breastfeed or not; (and this is so sad) to the extent that advocators of breastfeeding need to stress and stress about "the benefits" of breastfeeding when in truth, there is NO BENEFIT to breastfeeding! (Yes, I was VERY appalled when Diana West said this)

There's only the IMPORTANCE  of breastfeeding and the RISKS of NOT BREASTFEEDING.

There is no 'benefit' or advantage of breastfeeding compared to formula feeding because formula feeding cannot compare to breastfeeding. It is NOT EQUAL in any way.

To me, there is a super-easy way to explain how these two practices cannot be compared and is in no way EVER similar. By asking this question: Can you create another human being?

Not by procreating, and not by making a robot or a wax statue, but actually create another human being.

I thought so.

So we can never 'create' a substitute of breastmilk to be given to infants. It cannot be compared to an original product and an imitation of it: it doesn't come any closer as the most 'human-looking' or 'human' robot or wax statue is to a human. It just isn't a human being!

Phew! With that out of my system, now I will start relating what I learned from Day 1:

...to be continued