Breastfeeding: 5 times safer (at a guess)!!

5 Times Safer!!!

5 time safer!!

The Car seat Lady's blog has an article about Extended Rear-Facing Car Seats being 5 times safer than forward facing car seats. It describes and responds to some common objections to using a rear-facing car seat for your child as long as possible (25kgs/height restriction of seat). It's based on the finding that it is five times safer to be rear facing in an accident. I'm very convinced that these car seats are a good idea so definitely check out the article before you read any further: The Carseat Lady.

I thought the article was great on personal level as although I had been convinced that Rear-Facing was safest, I was still weighing up the decision and the article touched on many of my concerns. It simply explained in no uncertain terms that my concerns were unfounded or that my child should be rear-facing regardless. There were comments and responses on the facebook page that had shared the article and they are all very positive and thankful for the information.

I wondered if the same formula could be applied to a breastfeeding article!!

Remember this?

To draw a parallel between ERFing car seats and EBFing: The AAP recommends rear-facing in the car up to a minimum of two years and WHO recommends Breastfeeding to at least two years (along with complementary food). Coincidentally, these time-frames are very comparable and both suggest "the longer the better"!! So a comparison between these two is very valid and there is no reason that a similar article about BFing should be taken any differently...

....and yet I would predict that a similar article arguing for extended breastfeeding would be met with claims of militancy, mother bashing and weirdness....perversion even! -->

The Early Days:

...of car seats

HRH -Prince George

In the early days of their child's life parents are supported absolutely in getting their car seat ready and ensuring that it is safe to take their baby home in. You might recall the fuss when HRH's was not strapped in correctly earlier this year with the full media attention as he made his first trip home. There were "shoulda"s, and finger wagging a-plenty. Where rear-facing car seats are accepted as being so much safer for a newborn, it is acceptable and perhaps sensible that many hospitals will not allow babies to be discharged without an appropriate baby car seat. No debate. No compromise....and shame on those who get it wrong, they risk the wrath of the media!

....and boobs

Since the argument for breastfeeding has been made over and over in terms of health "benefits", optimum nutrition, Attachment and convenience, wouldn't it make sense that hospitals would feel equally strongly about babies breastfeeding well before being discharged?


Alternatively, just to be consistent would it be best to leave car seats to parents discretion?

Maybe I'm taking the parallel a bit far...perhaps someone reviewed the mountains of research on breastfeeding and decided that it is only 2 or 3 times safer and not due the same level of attention! Long term benefits and quality of life are so much harder to quantify than a comparison of "chances of survival" depending on the direction your seat is facing. 

I challenge you to quantify it (based on current evidence)! 

I need a number so get crunching asap!! 

Extended....

...rear-facing carseats

Of course it doesn't stop there for the rear facing car seats and actually these early days of rear facing are not even mentioned in the article -a given when it comes to tiny tots really! (Is that something to do with their necks?) A strong yet simple argument is made for keeping your precious little one rear-facing for as long as possible and safe (depending on their size and weight): IT'S 5 TIMES SAFER!!! Safety must be prioritized and bigger bundles of joy shouldn't be placed at any unnecessary risk. It's common in other countries to cope with any minor challenges of keeping your child rear-facing for longer....and we need to step up and do the same here. (Actually DP recently suggested the invention of rear-facing cars....or simply reversing everywhere -I won't get into that here, though it is an excellent idea and I'm sure it will happen at some stage if it hasn't already.)

...& breastfeeding

Getting back to the parallel universe of breastfeeding, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends breastfeeding to two years and beyond. The HSE (in Ireland) is in agreement, so clearly this is not something merely relevant to countries where water is unfit for drinking or anything like that (although The Girl Against Fluoride would argue that our water is not suitable for drinking here). So we can take it that it's similarly "safer" though I'm still not sure if "5 times" is a good guess or not....

Have you done that number crunching for me yet or did you need a treat? 

(pie -get it?)

Why the difference?

While there is a market for extended car seats and manufacturers to promote them as well as any person or agency promoting in the best interest of children....unfortunately there is no market for breastfeeding, no manufacturers advertising or campaigning....in fact quite the opposite, there is significant economical interest in encouraging us not to breastfeed, particularly in Ireland. ("The Politics of Breastfeeding" is a good read if you're interested in opening your eyes further on that). It's sad to think that it all boils down to the bucks! I wonder if that's it?
Drawing the parallels between Extended Rear Facing and Extended Breastfeeding like this makes me wonder why breastfeeding is such an emotive subject? Whether/why this makes such a difference to how information is shared about it? Why the language around breastfeeding differs so much...I keep finding myself tempted to say "better" or "optimum" instead of "safer" but surely anything that is more likely to help your child to remain healthy is "safer" rather than "better".

Will breastfeeding ever be where rear facing cars seats are?
-Standard practice in the early days
-Extending this time frame promoted openly without a mention of "mommy-wars".

Maybe it's just that we don't have a solid number to shout about!! 

How many times safer is breastfeeding?

Have you picked one yet? 

I'm liking 6 actually!

6 is a good number!