There was a time when mothers breastfed more than today.
In the 19th century, due to scientific discoveries, institutional support for this practice became
“very enthusiastic
,” writes Michel Vandenbroeck, professor of pedagogy at Ghent University.
It was then accompanied by a multitude of advice.
In 1837, Thomas Bull's manual included the following:
"all pressure on the nipple and breast should be carefully avoided, flannels or any heavy covering should be kept aside, the nipple itself should be washed and rubbed three or four times a day with green tea or with an infusion of oak bark or pomegranate and exposed to the air each time for at least ten minutes
.
As this simple advice began to be given, breastfeeding declined in popularity.
Too complex.
Too much pressure.
According to Michel Vandenbroeck, official assistance to parents has always been accompanied by a distrust which has complicated their role.
In his latest book
Being a Parent in a Neoliberal World,
just published by Érès, the doctor in educational sciences questions the new parenting based on neuroscience.
LE FIGARO. -
“You are very lucky to be a parent today (…) thanks to science, for the first time since humanity existed, we are beginning to know better how to deal with babies, children and adolescents,”
wrote
French pediatrician Catherine Gueguen – very popular among parents
– in
Letter to a Young Parent
in 2020. Unlike her, you think that neuroscience does not necessarily help to see things more clearly in education.
For what ?
MICHEL VANDENBROECK. -
Above all, science makes parents more dependent on experts who constantly invite them to apply scientific instructions for “
good parenting
” while the latter are constantly changing.
Neuroscience is also a young science against which there are objections…
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