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It has become necessary to advocate breastfeeding because aggressive marketing of infant formula in the 20th century has led to widespread perception by physicians and the public alike that infant formula is the preferred choice in infant feeding. 1 Free access to ready-to-feed formula and traditional hospital routines of separating mothers from their newborns have also resulted in a loss of breastfeeding skills and knowledge among women and healthcare professionals. 2 This has made it harder for women who intend to breastfeed to receive the necessary support that they need and has also led to the perception of breasts as purely sexual, rather than nutritive, organs. It is no wonder, then, that the act of breastfeeding in public often draws the ire of the uninformed.

It is not an easy task to change mindsets. Physicians are not immune to prevailing attitudes and advertising tactics, and some may still see breastfeeding as a lifestyle choice rather than an important health decision. Promises of superior intellect and academic abilities packaged in a shiny metal tin means that many parents, too, fall into the same trap. As such, it is helpful to reframe the narrative to one where breastfeeding is emphasised as the physiologic norm and breast milk is held up as the gold standard by which infant formula is compared. Whether it is due to the disproportionately large human brain, combined with a pelvis narrowed from bipedalism—or the mother who has reached her metabolic constraints, it is a fact that human babies are born far too prematurely. 3 Unlike a calf who can walk within minutes of birthing from its mother, it will take the human baby another year or …