There is still no consensus on the age at which children should be weaned of breastmilk, with some mothers believing that breastfeeding beyond the age of two is completely normal and that it builds a bond between them and their children, and others believing that breastfeeding beyond infancy is an abnormal practice. In the midst of this controversy, a mother of four from UK, Sharon Spink has held firmly to her stance on breastfeeding, which is that it should be continued until the child decides that they want to wean themselves off of breastmilk.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sharon Spink (@sharonspinkact) on Sep 23, 2018 at 4:39am PDT

According to the Sun, Sharon has been breastfeeding her daughter Charlotte for the past nine years, and finally stopped two months ago once Charlotte decided that she no longer wanted to feed. Sharon believes that this has helped them develop a strong, unbreakable bond and that it is completely normal for children to breastfeed well past infancy. Sharon, who is an actor, supports natural term weaning and claims that keeping her daughter on breast milk helped her stay healthy and avoid falling sick too often.

She revealed, "She naturally self-weaned earlier this year. It was a gradual process and her choice. She was feeding about once a month if she wasn’t feeling great or was feeling a bit run down and was going longer and longer without feeding. Now she hasn’t done it for about two months. She told me she would stop when she was 10 which will be in April next year but it seems to have come to a natural end earlier, although I would have allowed her to continue for as long as she wants to."

However, the 50-year-old mum has had her fair share of backlash from those who have accused her of child abuse and even pedophilia, but she's managed to hold her ground and seeks to erase the stigma around breastfeeding growing children. Sharon said, "When I came to have Charlotte, I had decided on natural term weaning. It’s nice for the child to be in control of when they want to wean, rather than forcing the issue."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sharon Spink (@sharonspinkact) on Apr 30, 2017 at 10:35am PDT

Sharon added that Charlotte deciding to discontinue breastfeeding had helped make the end easier. She said, "As she’s been reducing anyway I don’t feel sad about it. If she would have stopped suddenly I think I would have missed it, but it’s just nice that it’s come to a natural end. It’s how I envisaged it would end. It was her choice and was done in a very gradual way.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sharon Spink (@sharonspinkact) on Jul 13, 2017 at 10:51am PDT

"We haven’t had a discussion about her not doing it anymore. I just hope when she’s older she’ll remember that feeling of comfort and security it gave her rather than it being about feeding. We have such a close bond and I’m convinced it’s because of breastfeeding her for so long. It cemented our bond and I don’t think that will change now it’s stopped. I think we’re closer because of doing it. I haven’t had any pangs since she stopped and she still comes for a cuddle. With Charlotte it was about the security. Children find a lot of comfort in the breast, and the older they get the more it becomes about comfort rather than nutrition."

Sharon's decision to breastfeed Charlotte came as a result of her difficulties with feeding her older children, Kim, 30, Sarah, 28, and Isabel, 12. After her success with Charlotte, Sharon went on to qualify last year as a breastfeeding counselor. She revealed, "I breastfed my first two children for a couple of weeks and my daughter Isabel for about six months but I ran into problems and felt like there was a lack of support."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sharon Spink (@sharonspinkact) on Aug 10, 2018 at 11:59am PDT

"When Isabel was four months old she lost weight and I had to supplement that with formula. I was determined to make it work for Charlotte. My initial goal was to get past the six months mark then it became 12 months, then two years which is the WHO minimum recommendation. After that, it was seeing how far she wanted to go. There were times when I wanted to give up especially in the early days of feeding but you think 'I’m doing this for my child. This is what she wants and I’ll carry on because I know it’s helping her.'"

By the age of four, Charlotte began sleeping through the night, but would occasionally pop into her mum's bed to breastfeed. Sharon said, "Sometimes I wouldn’t even realize and I’d ask her the next day whether she came in in the night to feed." By the age of five, Charlotte breastfed thrice a day, but she reduced this to once a month over the next four years. Sharon breastfed her daughter while she was in church, at the supermarket, and even at the hairdressers, then eventually started doing it at home.

Sharon shared that people had responded in different ways to her. "The reaction I get from within the breastfeeding community is one of support. There were a lot of positive comments. Obviously there have been the negatives – usually from typical keyboard warriors who post their opinion. I have been called every name under the sun. I’ve been told it’s child abuse, I’ve been called a paedophile and told it’s wrong and that I’m a freak. The first time it upset me because I wasn’t used to it but now it’s water off a duck’s back."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sharon Spink (@sharonspinkact) on Oct 18, 2018 at 6:47am PDT

Sharon believes that she isn't the only mom who breastfeeds her older children, and is hoping that by talking about it, she can encourage them to admit to it. She said, "I’m sure it’s more common than people think but mums are too scared to talk about it and are scared of the backlash from people that don’t understand that it’s normal. I just want to let other mums out there who are wondering ‘should I or should I not?’ know that this is normal and this is what children do. If they feed for as long as they want to they will naturally wean. In a lot of countries, it’s perfectly normal to breastfeed older children and they will do it for a lot longer than we do in the west."

Sharon described the personal growth that breastfeeding Charlotte had brought about. She said, "It feels empowering doing something like this. All four of my children were born by c-section and I felt like my body had failed. I hated feeling like that but it was true. I’ve grown up and learned so much more now. I look back and I’ve got four healthy children who had they not been born by c-section would not be here today.

“With breastfeeding when it doesn’t happen you feel like your body is not working properly. I tried to breastfeed three children and failed and that made me more determined. I feel like my body is doing what it’s supposed to be doing. It’s what breasts are for. We have to support mums. It’s about choice."