Photo

Alternative to THAT TIME cover. Photograph: Matthew Farrant for the Guardian

Zoe Williams on the ‘feeding frenzy’ and the women daring to challenge the ‘breast is best’ orthodoxy:

Leaving social policy and returning to the world, it is interesting to note that the standard advice is to breastfeed exclusively (“don’t rush to mush!”) for six months, and yet only half of mothers in the UK who start breastfeeding (an impressive 91%) continue past six weeks. So there’s this very trenchant public health message that the majority of people aren’t taking any notice of – in that regard, it’s a bit like the five-a-day message in adult nutrition (ie, we mainly ignore it), and yet it’s unlike the proscription of drink-driving, which has pretty good social penetration. The message I take from that is that we tend to supplement government advice with the evidence of our own five senses, and only when the two are in accord do we take it all that seriously.