Breastfeeding Matters NZ

17/09/2025

The natural term for humans to breastfeed is anywhere between 2 and 7+ years. Some babies stop earlier, some carry on for longer.

Many cultures around the world breastfeed to natural term, including many women in the Western world. This age range is only surprising in cultures that interrupt breastfeeding, often without realising it or knowing which norms are biological and which are cultural.

The concentration of fats and proteins increase as a baby grows into a toddler, along with increased levels of antibacterial and antiviral components such as lysozyme, which is an anti-inflammatory, and destroys bacteria.

Lysozyme increases in concentration from about 6 months old, when babies become more mobile and everything (toys, sand, cats biscuits?) goes straight in the mouth, and keeps increasing after the first year.

The concentration of Lactoferrin also increases over time. Lactoferrin inhibits the growth of some cancerous cells. It also binds to the iron in our baby’s body, preventing it from being available to harmful microorganisms that need iron to survive. Lactoferrin also kills the bacteria strep mutans, a cause of tooth decay and cavities.

Our body’s immune system takes around 6 years to become fully mature, so the support of the protective factors in breastmilk until our immune system can fully function on its own seems play a part in the timescale of natural term weaning too.

Longer term breastfeeding is also associated with reduced risk of diseases for mothers, including breast cancer.

We acknowledge that many mothers find it difficult to establish breastfeeding in the first place, that is a multi-layered investment on the part of a mother and that natural term feeding might not feel like, or be, a possibility for many.

We're not here to tell anyone what to do.

We also acknowledge that lack of information about our biology contributes to lack of support for mothers when they want to establish, or continue, breastfeeding, but cannot find the help they need from people who understand why it matters, or what is normal.

More at https://human-milk.com/pages/science-of-breastmilk

15/09/2025

Breastfeeding #

Every time breastfeeding is celebrated, it feels almost guaranteed that someone will come in and say “Fed is best.”

I want to be clear about why I don’t believe in that phrase… and why I don’t use it.

1. Where it came from matters

“Fed is best” wasn’t just a random phrase that moms started saying to encourage one another. It was created and promoted by the Fed Is Best Foundation, an organization that, despite its warm-sounding name, has made a career out of undermining breastfeeding. On the surface, they say they’re about “supporting all feeding choices,” but in reality, their messaging consistently downplays the science behind breast milk, exaggerates the risks of exclusive breastfeeding, and positions formula as equal in every way. When you know the history, you realize it was never about uplifting moms… it was about pushing back against breastfeeding advocacy.

2. It reduces everything to survival

Of course babies need to be fed. No one disputes that. But to say “fed is best” is to celebrate the bare minimum: survival. A baby being fed is what keeps them alive. But best? Best goes beyond survival. Best is about thriving, about receiving the optimal nutrition that human milk was biologically designed to provide.

When we say “fed is best,” we erase the reality that not all forms of feeding are equal in terms of health outcomes. Breast milk isn’t just food, it’s living tissue, full of immune cells, hormones, enzymes, antibodies, and stem cells that formula simply can’t replicate. To flatten that difference under a catchy slogan does a disservice to families who deserve the truth.

3. It shuts down breastfeeding advocacy

This is one of the biggest reasons I don’t like the phrase. You cannot even celebrate breastfeeding online without someone commenting “fed is best” as if acknowledging the benefits of breast milk is automatically an insult to moms who used formula. But that’s not true. Talking about breast milk’s uniqueness isn’t judgment, it’s science. But the “fed is best” mentality makes it feel almost taboo to talk about breastfeeding honestly. And when we silence those conversations, moms lose access to information that could have helped them succeed or at least make a fully informed decision.

4. It makes mothers defensive instead of supported

The slogan is often used as a shield. Instead of addressing the very real barriers that keep moms from breastfeeding… lack of maternity leave, no workplace pumping support, cultural pressure, aggressive formula marketing, we throw out “fed is best” to make the conversation go away. It doesn’t actually support moms. It dismisses them.

I believe mothers deserve real solutions, not slogans. They deserve policies that protect their feeding goals, workplaces that provide time and space to pump, and communities that cheer them on instead of shaming or silencing them.

5. Support doesn’t require erasing truth

This is the heart of it for me. I support all mothers. I know not everyone can exclusively breastfeed. I know supplementation happens. I know some moms formula-feed from day one. That doesn’t make them less. That doesn’t make them failures.

But supporting moms doesn’t mean erasing facts. Breast milk is unmatched. Human milk has lifelong health impacts that no formula can provide. That’s not opinion, that’s evidence. To act like “all feeding is the same” is not empowerment… it’s dishonesty.

⸻

So no, I don’t use “fed is best.”
Because fed is not best, it’s the minimum.

And breastfeeding? That’s not some “extra credit” or gold standard goal. It’s the baseline. It’s the biological norm. It’s what human infants were created to receive, what our bodies were made to provide.

21/07/2023

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=651557987009774&id=100064667354728&mibextid=qC1gEa

If you're wondering what it is we get up to at the Little Miracles Trust, we'll let these stats from 2022 do the talking...💜

If you'd like to be a part of this, you can make a donation or set up a regular giving payment on our website. Just clickety, click, click on the link below...

https://littlemiraclestrust.org.nz/support-us/donate/

20/07/2023

Love a loose swaddle but tight swaddling may impact some dyads with other risk factors for low production

Makes sense really- swaddled babies often have less wake ups, less chance to express reflexes and are held less. It’s the opposite of skin to skin.

If your baby loves a swaddle, be wary of how long they are sleeping, and how often they are feeding.

Dixley A, Ball HL. The impact of swaddling upon breastfeeding: A critical review. Am J Hum Biol. 2023 Feb 14:e23878. doi: 10.1002/ajhb.23878. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36787374.

30/05/2023

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3337440263196059&id=1481926842080753&mibextid=qC1gEa

16/09/2022

Her Majesty broke tradition when she opted to breastfeed her children

30/06/2022

Missed it? You can watch Dr. Mitchell’s presentation for free by clicking the link here !

24/05/2022

We humans have evolved to drink our mother’s milk until anywhere between the ages of around 2 and 7+ years old. Some babies stop earlier, some children carry on for longer. This is known as natural term breastfeeding, or natural term weaning. It’s thought that the eruption of the permanent set of teeth influences this timescale.

Many cultures around the world breastfeed until natural term, including many women in the Western world. This age range is only surprising in cultures that interrupt breastfeeding, often without realising it or knowing which norms are biololgical and which are cultural.

The concentration of fats and proteins increase as the baby grows into a toddler, along with increased levels of antibacterial and antiviral components such as lysozyme, which is an anti-inflammatory and destroys bacteria. Lysozyme increases in concentration from about 6 months old, and keeps increasing after the first year.

The concentration of Lactoferrin also increases over time. Lactoferrin inhibits the growth of some cancerous cells. It also helps our babies to absorb their own iron stores, whilst binding to the iron in our baby’s body which prevents it from being available to harmful microorganisms that need iron to survive. Lactoferrin also kills the bacteria strep mutans, which causes tooth decay and cavities.

Our body’s immune system takes around 6 years to become fully mature, so the support of the protective factors in human milk could play a part in the timescale of natural term weaning.
It is also associated with reduced risk of diseases for the mother, including breast cancer.

We acknowledge that many mothers find it difficult to establish breastfeeding in the first place, that breastfeeding is a multi-layered investment on the part of a mother and that natural term feeding might not feel like - or be - a possibility for many.

We also acknowledge that lack of information about our biology contributes to the lack of support for mothers when they want to establish - or continue - breastfeeding, but cannot find the help they need from people who understand why it matters so much.

Let's continue to turn that around

03/05/2022

https://www.facebook.com/100000626975301/posts/5555749784455866/?d=n

16/03/2022

We looked at almost 300,000 births and found those mothers in the private system were more likely to have a caesarean – even if they didn’t really want or need one.

27/02/2022

Praying for women and children in the Ukraine breastfeeding in emergencies saves lives

Parents want what's best for their babies. The formula milk industry wants what's best for their 💰profits.
We must put babies before bottom lines 👶🏿👶🏻👶.
Read World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF study on how the marketing of formula milk influences our decisions on infant feeding here 👉https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240044609
of formula milk.

27/01/2022

❤️aroha to this muma

A mum who donated her milk after her daughter was stillborn says it left her "imprint on the world".