What’s in a name? “Nursing” vs “Breastfeeding"

So, I have always referred to feeding my baby as nursing. I’m not sure why I called it nursing instead of breastfeeding. Maybe I felt like breastfeeding was more the medical, technical term, while nursing was the informal, used-at-home term. Like patella and knee cap. Another reason I probably said nursing is because the word nursing encompasses all aspects of nurturing at the breast. It is feeding, pacifying, comforting, lulling to sleep. My daughter didn’t just breastfeed. She “nursed”. She was always at the breast. She never once fell asleep without nursing, well maybe once, but it was probably a fluke. She pacified at the breast, turning minutes into hours. She nursed into toddlerhood which meant she came to the breast for comfort when she fell down, was overwhelmed by a crowd, was sad that her cousins had to go back home. She often spent the good part of a play date in mommy’s arms, nursing, while observing the other children.

While nursing my daughter, I was not aware of what others were doing when it came to breastfeeding. I was not concerned with how long others were breastfeeding or when the appropriate (read: societal norm) weaning time was, or that there was a need for “normalizing breastfeeding.” I assumed people knew that breastfeeding was best, and while I was met with lots of criticism for nursing well into toddlerhood, I did not feel a responsibility for normalizing breastfeeding. I found out about La Leche League meetings when I was pregnant with my son and started attending meeting regularly. This opened a whole world of breastfeeding to me. I knew only a few other breastfeeding moms while I was nursing my daughter and they were the hiding in the back room, not nursing in public, type. No one around me was nursing into toddlerhood. At La Leche I met moms who were breastfeeding into toddlerhood, not hiding in dressing rooms, and trying to make a difference in breastfeeding statistics. As I joined facebook groups supporting breastfeeding I realized that no one really used the term nursing. It is breastfeeding. I realized I started saying breastfeeding more often and using the term nursing less.

Why say breastfeeding anyway? I believe it is a step toward normalizing breastfeeding. It is important to normalize breastfeeding. Saying “breastfeeding” is making the word breast normal. It is identifying breasts as tools to feed a baby and not just a part of a woman’s body. God designed breasts to make milk to feed a baby. People have forgotten that. People who believe that God created their body, still have a problem with breastfeeding. They can only see breasts as sexual and not as they were fully intended to be. I do also believe that God designed the body to be enjoyed by the person’s mate. (See Song of Solomon for more on that.) The more people see mothers breastfeeding, hear the term breastfeeding, the less emphasis on the sexuality of breasts, the more people will see breastfeeding as the norm. Breastfeeding is important—for the mother, for the baby, for the whole family. I want to normalize breastfeeding. I want those I love to breastfeed their babies. I want my children to breastfeed their babies. I want my future daughter(s) in law to breastfeed. I believe in breastfeeding and I pledge to do my part to bring breastfeeding back to where it was years and years ago—the norm.