Young Women

What does Foundational Breast Care mean for young women?

The way we feel about our bodies and our breasts is impacted by many varying factors and often starts from when we are very young. It is vital for young women to have a healthy relationship with their bodies and their breasts if they are to develop an empowered sense of themselves.

Starting the conversation early about breast care is essential if we are to empower women throughout puberty, into their early adulthood and beyond.

Girls with low body esteem are more likely to succumb to beauty and appearance pressures, withdraw from “fundamental life-building activities” and fail to reach their potential.

Source: 2017 Dove Global Girls Beauty and Confidence Report

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The world is fixated on images and how things look and so little is made about quality or how we feel in life. But life is not an instagram account, it is real and it rarely fits a perfect picture, and the more we can detach from wanting to fit a picture the freer we are to embrace life on a level far deeper and richer than just what it looks like.”

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Starting the conversation early

While Foundational Breast Care does not offer Esoteric Breast Massage treatments for women under 18, we work in the understanding that it is vital for young women to discover their inner values and from them develop the self-worth that underpins their lifelong relationships, with their bodies and their breasts.

To this end we support women of all ages to embody the values that will inspire and educate our younger generations.

What does breast care mean?

In its most basic sense it means actually caring about our breasts rather than comparing, criticising or feeling embarrassed about them. All too often our experience of puberty is one of shame and self-consciousness. Why is this?

Is it that women innately know the preciousness of their bodies and are grappling with the changes taking place in a world in which exploitation and sexualisation of women is the unfortunate norm? How can we ready women to be able to hold themselves in their true quality in the face of the pressures and pictures that proliferate?

"The world is fixated on images and how things look and so little is made about quality or how we feel in life. But life is not an instagram account, it is real and it rarely fits a perfect picture, and the more we can detach from wanting to fit a picture the freer we are to embrace life on a level far deeper and richer than just what it looks like.”

Imagine how it would feel if you knew as a young woman that you are already whole, complete and everything you need to be; that as you grow up, every choice and decision comes from your solid foundation of self-worth and inner confidence.

Although this is not the norm for women, change and a different paradigm of conversation starts with us. If we role model self-value as normal, and live in a way in which the richness it comes with is a given, we will slowly start to turn the tide on the plague of lack of self-worth and self-criticism and the lack of acceptance of our bodies which is our current condition as women both young and old.

When we connect to our inner values and qualities and then live from there, our bodies take on an undeniable beauty even though they may not fit society's mould. The knowing that we are beautiful becomes bone deep and eventually it cannot be shaken by any outer image or expression from others. We feel beautiful to our selves and that is enough.

I remember wishing and wishing that I would develop breasts, trying to get my mum to buy me bras before I had even begun developing breasts. I had no idea of what the process of normal breast development was, but I just imagined that one day I would look like the women on TV and I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t happening to me.

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From RB, 23 years old

I remember wishing and wishing that I would develop breasts, trying to get my mum to buy me bras before I had even begun developing breasts. I had no idea of what the process of normal breast development was, but I just imagined that one day I would look like the women on TV and I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t happening to me.

I remember saying to my mum that I would know I had really grown breasts when they maintained their size/shape when I lay down and she had to explain that was something only fake breasts did, because real breast tissue moved and it was totally normal. I also remember wearing wired bras way to early because they were padded and I was desperate to look like I had breasts when I didn’t.

This is a big topic – young girls are taught so little about what to expect when going through puberty and have very little foundation to fall back on to know they are beautiful no matter what and that it is a process to be enjoyed, not feared or rushed.

I would say my current relationship with my breasts is pretty good, I still struggle with comparing my body to those of women I see in the media because there is a constant bombardment of how we should look that can be hard to ignore if we don’t have something greater to return to. We need to explain that there are actually qualities, values, things beneath the surface far more important, if not more beautiful than the way we look, that we need to feel in ourselves and hold as having value, so that when the voice that tells us we aren’t good enough comes in, it doesn’t have as much impact on how we feel about ourselves.