SURRESNES Three years old Louise presents his play kitchen.
She serves small croissants from a pink plastic plate to her grandparents.
They have arrived from the south of France for a weekend visit to their grandchild who lives in the suburbs of Paris.
Louise’s mother, Laurene Pommier always knew she wanted to be a mother.
However, Pommier always had a clear position on breastfeeding.
He never even considered it.
Pommier did not like the idea of having to share one’s body with another.
– I didn’t see myself as a source of food for my child. My body belongs to me, not to my child.
Although breastfeeding is generally encouraged in maternity hospitals in France, Pommier received support for her decision from the staff.
– The midwives emphasized that if I feel well myself, the relationship with my child will also be better. It is also good for the child, even if he does not receive breast milk.
Working life does not support breastfeeding
Officially, in France, according to the World Health Organization WHO guidelines, six months of full breastfeeding is recommended.
This happens only for a few.
In 2021, 77 percent of French mothers started breastfeeding after giving birth, but stopped it pretty soon anyway.
After a couple of months after giving birth, only 38 percent of French mothers were breastfeeding.
The structures of working life are an obstacle for many to continue breastfeeding, even if they want to, says the midwife By Myriam Ben Balla.
Ben Balla helps women prepare for and after childbirth.
The work also includes coaching mothers on breastfeeding, which different people react to very differently.
– Our task at the clinic is to encourage mothers to breastfeed, but we respect everyone’s own decision to breastfeed or not.
The length of maternity leave in France is 16 weeks. It ends ten weeks after giving birth.
So many return to work when the baby is about three months old.
– Many mothers stop breastfeeding when they return to work, because pumping and storing milk is difficult in many workplaces, says Ben Balla.
Breastfeeding is unequal, says Laurène
Gender equality is a reason for some not to breastfeed, says Ben Balla. Both parents are capable of bottle feeding.
It was also one of the reasons why Laurène Pommier did not breastfeed.
He didn’t want the child to be more dependent on him than his father.
– To me, equality means that the father can also participate fully in feeding his child and is, in that sense, just as important to the child as the mother.
It was also easier to share the baby’s night wakings, when Pommier, who works as an HR director in a growing company, did not have to get up alone at night and feed a hungry child.
The equality perspective on breastfeeding is nothing new in France, on the contrary.
At that time, bottle feeding was much more common in France than it is today.
Ben Ballan many mothers also hope to get back to normal life as soon as possible.
They don’t want the child to limit life too much. The freedom to drink alcohol also fascinates many.
– It’s easier to leave the baby in the care of others when you can feed it a formula and you don’t have to organize milk pumping and freezing, says Ben Balla.
The attitude towards breastfeeding is changing
In France, mothers still breastfeed less than in many other countries. Despite everything, the popularity of breastfeeding has grown in France.
In the early 1970s about a third of French women started breastfeeding, while in 2021 about two out of three mothers already started it.
Breastfeeding time has also increased in ten years, from just under four months to five.
The difference to Finland is significant. Made in 2023 The Healthy Finland study in Finland, babies are breastfed for an average of eight months.
Ben Balla thinks that the rise in popularity of breastfeeding in France is partially explained by the fact that breastfeeding is viewed more positively than before.
The health benefits of breastfeeding are also better known.
– Breastfeeding is encouraged more than before. More and more people are also interested in a more natural and cleaner way of life.