Many people have still another problem with breastfeeding. If feeding a baby involved any other part of your anatomy—say fingers or elbows—no one would hesitate. But you have to use your breasts. And because every¬body in our culture is so much more comfortable seeing breasts used to sell toilet cleaner and cheese puffs, it’s hard for them to see what have evolved into favorite sex objects taken out of context. Bottles, rubber nipples, and formula are very far removed from breasts, and most people are much more comfortable looking at rubber nipples than they are with the possibility of eyeballing the real thing.

Yes, there will be pressure not to breastfeed. Yes, unless you live in a cloister, there will be times when you’ll have to do it in public. But it isn’t mandatory K.P. duty. Like pregnancy, it is for a finite period of your life. And it is mostly a pleasant duty. The good you do in this early period will last a lifetime for your child. (And no, they’ll probably never thank you for it.) Plus, there are ways around your own modesty, variations you will learn in this book so that you can feel comfortable.

Could your baby’s IQ even be influenced by breastmilk? Researchers say “yes.” Consider this: In a study published in 1993 in the British medial journal Lancet, eight-year-olds who were given breastmilk in the first month of life scored 8.3 IQ points higher than another group fed formula.

In another study published in 1996 in the Journal of Human Lactation, 4-month-old babies exclusively fed breastmilk were compared to another group of four-month-olds fed formula or breastmilk supplemented by formula. The researchers found that babies fed only breast-milk “differed significantly” from the other groups, including the group fed a combination of mother’s milk and formula. Exclusive breastfeeders were ahead in both physical and behavioral development, keeping up with all of those “what your baby may be doing” charts and even exceeding many of the developmental milestones, unlike many in the other group. They were checked and compared again at a year and the differences still held up.

Another study looked at the mental and motor development of eighteen-month-olds. Even after controlling for things that are decidedly hard to control for (how smart the babies’ moms and dads are, how much stimulation there is for baby, how many other kids in the family are competing for mom’s and dad’s attention, etc.), the researchers still found a “robust statistical association between type of feeding and child intelligence.” One more thing: Some follow-up work suggests there are longterm developmental differences.
This is upsetting news for those who weren’t breastfed (including me, since I myself was minimally breastfed) and those who don’t breastfeed their own children. I tell you this because each time I’ve talked about a link between breastmilk and IQ, I’ve needed a flame-proof suit. Some will say the IQ differences are “small” or “insignificant,” but the studies taken together suggest the boost to IQ could be as low as one point, but may be in the range of five to ten points. I’ll let you be the judge of what seems “small” or “insignificant” to you.

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