Public health messages often say breastfeeding is one of the best ways for a mother to give her child a healthy start. Breast milk offers important nutrients in the first months, contains antibodies that protect against common childhood illnesses, and keeps providing value as the child grows. The World Health Organisation recommends breastfeeding only for the first six months, then adding other foods while continuing to breastfeed for up to two years or longer.
However, following these recommendations can be much more complicated in real life.
For mothers, breastfeeding can involve dealing with pain, worries about milk supply, broken sleep, frequent feedings and the emotional challenges after giving birth. For babies, breastfeeding is not just about food. It can also mean warmth, comfort,and a sense of security.
Certified Breastfeeding Specialist Sherylann James believes one factor can significantly shape whether that experience feels manageable or overwhelming: support.
James, who works with Baby to Breast Lactation Services, says many mothers she meets start breastfeeding for a simple reason.
“They want to offer their babies the best option. It’s just as simple as that,” she said.
However, James believes that promoting breastfeeding should not mean judging women who choose another way to feed their babies.
“If a mother has decided she’s going to formula feed, I am not going to crucify her,” she said.
Instead, she believes it is important to understand why that decision was made. A previous difficult breastfeeding experience, concerns about milk supply or needing to go back to work may all influence how a mother chooses to feed her child.
Breastfeeding is known to have health benefits for both mothers and babies.
The WHO states that breast milk contains antibodies that help protect against common childhood illnesses, while women who breastfeed have a reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancers. Breastfeeding is also associated with protection against some infectious diseases in children.
James also pointed to the financial consideration. As of August 19, 2026, a can of Similac Sensitive at one local store was priced at EC$35.61.
She says breastfeeding usually costs less than buying formula, but she avoids calling it “free”.
This difference matters. While breast milk does not have a price tag at the store, breastfeeding can take a lot of a woman’s time and energy. Sometimes, it also means spending money on pumps, storage, nursing supplies or getting help from professionals.
For some mothers, James said, the motivation is also emotional.
“For some people it’s just about that maternal bond when you breastfeed your baby,” she said.
Breastfeeding repeatedly brings a baby into close physical contact with its mother. Skin-to-skin contact itself has been associated with breastfeeding initiation and duration, while the WHO notes that babies placed in early skin-to-skin contact appear to interact more with their mothers and cry less.
But this closeness also explains something many breastfeeding mothers notice: sometimes a baby wants to nurse even when they are not hungry.
A breastfed baby might refuse a bottle and keep crying, but calm down right away when put to the breast. For tired parents, this can be confusing.
James says it helps to remember what the baby’s world was like before birth.
For months, the mother’s body was everything to the baby. After birth, that sense of comfort does not go away right away.
A baby who is uncomfortable, tired, too hot, too cold or simply overwhelmed may seek its mother because nursing is calming.
“They’re still looking at themselves and their mother being one,” James explained, referring to the concept of the mother-baby or breastfeeding dyad. “This is biologically normal.”
Breastfeeding therefore does not always function exclusively as a response to hunger.
At the breast, the infant receives milk, but also experiences sucking, warmth, touch, the mother’s smell and close physical contact. For some babies, nursing becomes part of how they settle when distressed.
This also explains why a baby wanting to nurse more often does not always mean the mother’s milk supply is low.
A baby may feed more frequently during growth spurts. At other times, the baby may simply be seeking comfort.
Understanding that distinction can reduce some of the anxiety mothers experience when their baby’s behaviour changes.
James is especially concerned about how much misinformation mothers get about how breastfeeding should work.
She rejects rigid instructions that babies must nurse for a specific number of minutes on each breast.
“If somebody is telling you your baby is supposed to breastfeed for half an hour on each side, that’s misinformation,” James said.
She compares it to placing food in front of an adult and deciding in advance exactly how long that person must eat.
If someone is full after 10 minutes, making them keep eating for another 20 does not make sense. In the same way, if they are still hungry when time is up, taking away their food just because the clock says so ignores their needs.
“Babies are similar. They are human beings,” James said.
The same idea applies to strict feeding schedules, she argued.
“One of the most important things is to learn your baby,” James said. “When you learn your baby, you start to notice their cues, their hunger cues, their sleepy cues.”
WHO guidance similarly recommends responsive breastfeeding based on an infant’s hunger cues rather than imposing a universal feeding duration.
James believes that clearing up misinformation can change how mothers feel about breastfeeding.
If a woman thinks she has to nurse for an hour every two or three hours, it is easy to feel like feeding takes over her whole day. But learning to spot good feeding and her own baby’s signals can make things feel very different.
The psychological impact of breastfeeding requires a particularly careful discussion.
Breastfeeding can be exhausting. A mother might feel needed all the time, have pain while feeding, or feel overwhelmed if her baby always wants to nurse.
But James warns against blaming breastfeeding alone for mental health struggles after birth.
Postpartum women, regardless of whether they breastfeed, pump, combination-feed or formula-feed, are undergoing enormous physical, hormonal and emotional changes.
Where breastfeeding can become particularly difficult, James said, is when inadequate support is added to that already vulnerable period.
“When there’s no support, it’s a lot more pressure on a mother who is trying to breastfeed,” she said.
And not all so-called “help” is actually helpful.
A mother who wants to breastfeed may repeatedly hear that her milk is insufficient and that she should introduce formula. Another may be pressured in the opposite direction and told to continue breastfeeding at all costs, even while struggling with pain or another unresolved problem.
In both cases, the mother’s concerns may remain unaddressed.
James describes this as support that may appear helpful at first but ultimately adds pressure.
“If you have somebody who is telling you, ‘Just give the baby the breast, breastfeed,’ but they’re not assisting, they don’t have, first and foremost, the skills to actually assist you in resolving whatever the issue is, then it can also still be a lot of pressure,” she explained.
Her argument is not that breastfeeding cannot contribute to an individual mother’s stress. Rather, breastfeeding takes place within the wider postpartum experience, and whether it becomes manageable can depend heavily on expectations, circumstances and the support surrounding the woman.
The same applies to feeling “touched out”, overwhelmed or as though one’s body is constantly required by another person.
James said there is no single explanation. A baby may be going through a growth spurt, seeking comfort or experiencing another need. At the same time, a mother may be trying to manage the baby alongside household responsibilities, employment and other demands.
“It’s not a one-size-fits-all situation,” she said.
One of the most amazing things about human milk is that it changes over time.
Breast milk changes over the course of lactation, from colostrum in the first days after birth to transitional and mature milk. Its immune composition can also respond when illness enters the mother-infant relationship.
James said mothers who pump regularly may sometimes notice physical differences in their expressed milk.
“When there’s interaction between the mother and the baby while the baby is not well, or sometimes even when mommy is not well, the milk will, the body will start to make the changes, send more antibodies to fight whatever the infection is or the illness is,” she explained.
Scientific research supports the broader principle that breast milk’s immune composition can change during infection, although the process is more complex than the popular claim that a mother’s body simply “detects” a baby’s illness and immediately produces a precisely matched medicine.
One study of breastfeeding mother-infant pairs found that leukocytes, or white blood cells, in mature breast milk increased substantially when either the mother or infant had an infection and returned toward baseline after recovery. Another study found increases in white blood cells and other immune factors in mothers’ milk while their nursing infants had active infections. The findings help explain why breast milk is often described as a living biological substance rather than simply food.
Breast milk has antibodies and other immune parts, and it can change to meet the needs of the mother and baby.
The responsibility of breastfeeding physically falls on the mother, but James believes that should not mean the responsibility of caring for the baby falls on her alone.
She says partners sometimes think they cannot help much because they cannot breastfeed.
But there are many ways fathers and partners can be involved.
“There is skin-to-skin. You can do skin-to-skin with baby. You can burp baby after mommy has been done feeding; you can do the diaper changes,” James said.
If a mother pumps, a partner can store the expressed milk. He can settle the baby after a feed or take responsibility for other aspects of the baby’s care.
But James said effective communication remains crucial because what one person considers support may not be what the mother actually needs.
A partner may believe that doing laundry, cooking or cleaning is reducing the mother’s workload, while the mother may be desperately seeking help with the baby itself.
There can also be the opposite problem.
Some fathers strongly want their child to be breastfed and may continually encourage the mother to continue, believing they are advocating for their baby’s wellbeing. To a struggling mother, however, that encouragement can become another source of pressure.
The answer, James suggested, cannot be reduced to a universal list of duties.
Families have different dynamics. Some mothers primarily need their partner. Others may rely heavily on their own mothers or another trusted relative.
What matters is that the mother has meaningful support and that the people around her listen to what she actually needs.
For many Saint Lucian women, the breastfeeding challenge eventually moves beyond the home and into the workplace.
James believes this is where individual determination is no longer enough.
A mother may be committed to breastfeeding but return to a job where expressing milk is impractical.
Consider, she said, a security guard stationed outside with limited opportunities to leave her post.
“Where is the security guard going to pump?” James asked.
Even in conventional office environments, workplace culture, job responsibilities and management can determine whether a woman can realistically take enough time to express milk.
A mother may technically have a break, but that same period may be needed to eat, use the bathroom and attend to other basic needs.
For James, the solution cannot depend entirely on whether an individual employer happens to be accommodating.
“I think it really needs to be an actual policy put in place,” she said.
She believes mothers should have greater protection for pumping breaks after returning to work and argues that maternity leave itself should be longer, favouring a minimum of six months.
Her comments raise a broader question for Saint Lucia: if women are encouraged to follow public health recommendations on breastfeeding, are the systems surrounding them structured to make those recommendations realistically achievable?
James repeatedly returns to one word when discussing successful breastfeeding: support. Not pressure, not guilt. Support.
That distinction matters because breastfeeding conversations can easily become moralised.
A mother who uses formula may feel that she has failed. A woman determined to breastfeed may be told repeatedly that her baby is not getting enough. Another may experience pain and be told simply to persevere without anyone investigating why breastfeeding hurts.
James believes mothers need evidence-based information that allows them to make informed decisions.
She also wants to see a broader cultural shift in Saint Lucia, particularly away from the idea that because one generation of women endured a difficult experience, the next should simply endure it too.
“I went through that, why can’t you?” is an attitude she believes needs to change.
There has been progress in maternal and child health locally, she acknowledged, but she believes there remains room for significant improvement.
In the end, breastfeeding cannot be looked at on its own.
It is connected to postpartum health, family support, employment, maternity protections, access to qualified assistance and the information mothers receive before and after giving birth.
Breastfeeding Month is a chance to celebrate what a mother’s body can give her baby. But if we only celebrate and do not offer support, we risk forgetting about the woman who is doing all the work.
But breastfeeding doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
A woman might be healing from childbirth, learning her baby’s signals, dealing with broken sleep, changing hormones, worrying about milk supply, and getting ready to go back to work – all at the same time.
The question, then, should not simply be whether mothers are breastfeeding.
We should also ask if society is making it possible for mothers who want to breastfeed to do so without extra pain, bad information, feeling alone, or pressure.
In Saint Lucia, this conversation goes from hospitals and homes to workplaces and national policies.
Maybe the most important message this Breastfeeding Month is that supporting breastfeeding starts with supporting mothers.
