First of all, why breastmilk? This article from breastfeeding.com titled "Babies Are Born To Be Breastfed" does a good example of running down a few of the major points:
...breast milk has 400 nutrients that cannot be duplicated in the lab
...slows down the growth of harmful bacteria in the intestines
...inhibits the growth of bacteria in the lungs, mouth and nose
...reduces respiratory infections for the infant's first four months of life
...research suggests reduction in risk of sudden infant death syndrome, childhood cancer, diarrhea diseases, lower respiratory illness, ear infections, bacterial infections, diabetes, infant botulism, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and cavities
...breast fed children are 50% less likely to get an ear infection than those who are not
Not to mention what it goes on to say regarding recent studies about cancer cells:
Eyebrows were raised amongst scientists when an article, "Got Cancer Cells?"was released in Discover Magazine. Here's a snippet: "When Cathatrina Svanborg and her research associates began mixing mothers' milk and cancer cells together seven years ago, she wasn't looking for a cure for cancer; she was after a way to fight germs. Nevertheless, the physician and immunologist at Lund University in Sweden has discovered that a previously taken-for-granted component of ordinary human breast milk compels cancer cells-every type of cancer cell tested-to die." I wonder if more thought has since been put into our rising cancer rates since the 1940's and 1950's when formula was first introduced during a war era that forced women to go to work.
The CDC recently released their monthly "Vital Signs" (which focuses on a "call to action each month concerning a single, important public health topic) about breastfeeding. You can read it here. Some of the hard hitting points of the article, are that most hospitals do not fully support breastfeeding - a point even CNN picked up on and decided to cover. One specific point that particularly upsets me is the prevalence of formula advertisement in hospital settings. As a pregnant mother, often times we are bombarded with sign ups, literature, and free samples of formula - things that have no place in a doctor's office. And a bigger question, is why are they there to begin with? As educated medical professionals, these doctors and nurses know that breastfeeding is far superior to what formula can even attempt to offer, so why even bring it up at all, unless it is a last resort? It is as if I were to be going into a doctors office for a routine outpatient surgery, but them providing me literature on funeral services and casket options because there is the minute plausibility I might die. The following is from the CDC Guide to Breastfeeding Interventions (pg.36) with emphasis added:
…the impact of distributing samples of infant formula and promotional materials to breastfeeding mothers in the form of hospital discharge packs suggests a negative effect of this direct marketing on the duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding...The main finding was that when compared with not giving a discharge pack or providing a noncommercial discharge pack, distributing samples of infant formula reduced exclusive breastfeeding at all time points measured. No detrimental effects were found when discharge packs of commercial infant formula were not distributed.
In addition to the negative impact of distributing samples of infant formula during the mother’s hospital stay… educational materials on breastfeeding produced by manufacturers of infant formula and distributed to pregnant women intending to breastfeed had a substantially negative effect on the exclusivity and duration of breastfeeding.
So, even if formula companies provided literature touting breastfeeding, the fact that it is produced by the formula company alone still attributes a negative effect on a mother's duration to nurse (which, it probably doesn't help that the literature they provide is genuinely meant to be an advertisement).
Want to look at it from a fiscal point of view? The CDC also says that the low rates of breastfeeding add 2.2 BILLION a year to medical costs.
We also can't just expect women to know what to do when it comes to nursing. Proper channels of education and support need to be available. Look at this article, from Science and Sensibility about how breastfeeding is "right-brained" and it is a huge disadvantage that most women have not even seen another woman breastfeed.
A different way to think about this is to consider how mothers throughout human history managed to breastfeed without all of the information we have now. When breastfeeding was the norm, girls learned about breastfeeding as they were growing up by seeing women actually doing it. Dr. Peter Hartmann, a well-known breastfeeding researcher, makes this point well. He asked a young Australian Aboriginal mothers, “When did you learn about breastfeeding?” She answered, “I have always known how to breastfeed.”
Another blog put it this way:
So, picture this. You have never seen a bike up close in your life. Maybe you saw it in a movie, but the bike was turned so you could only see the wheel, or the person riding it was mostly offscreen, or they just cracked weird bike jokes the whole time. You know that in 10 months time, you will be in a bike race. This bike race will be one of the most important events of your life. For months, people talk at you about riding a bike. Some people tell you to make sure to put your weight in the back, others say the front. Some say peddle swiftly, others say peddle backwards. Some say grip the handlebars just so, others say don't touch the handlebars, because that didn't work for them. You watch a couple videos about bike-riding, but they seem overly technical, and a lot of the jargon flies right over your head. You ask your parents, but their only reply is "We never rode a bicycle, just give it a try and hope it works for you." You go out in public to garner some information, but almost everyone who rides a bicycle rides them behind very tall hedges that you cannot see through. You feel a bit panicky, and a lot apprehensive. At last, the day of the race arrives. You wobble up to the starting line, someone hands you a bike, you climb on hesitantly, and they give you a good shove down a very steep hill and yell "YOU'LL FIGURE IT OUT!!!"
I was very lucky to have fantastic support with nursing, but that isn't to say it was easy. In a society where breasts are meant for sex (and only sex mind you!) we have to cover ourselves up, and feel "ashamed" that we are nurturing our children and providing them with the best possible nutrition and comfort.
Take a look at this article that says that breastfeeding women are viewed as less competent and why:
In another experiment, 55 students were told they were participating in a study of how people form impressions of others in the face of limited information. They were asked to judge a woman they got to know by listening to her telephone answering machine.
Specifically, they heard a message in which a man talks about changing the time of their dinner date. The rest of the message varied: Some participants heard a neutral conclusion, while others heard a reference to breastfeeding (“I figured you would want to go home and breastfeed the baby”), motherhood (“I figured you would want to go home and give the baby a bath”), or sexuality (“I figured you would want to go home and change into your strapless bra”).
The breastfeeding woman “was viewed significantly more negatively compared to the neutral voicemail on all measures of competence,” Smith and her colleagues found. The woman in the strapless bra was also labeled as less competent, suggesting that the bias faced by breastfeeding woman “is similar to the once experienced by a woman for whom the breast is sexually objectified,” the researchers add.
Pregnancy and child rearing both require maturity and understanding. That’s why we wait until children are in middle school to introduce sex education. You wouldn’t teach it to a first grader.
I believe dolls like this have the potential to confuse young girls. They may even inadvertently traumatize them. There’s no way of knowing until the girls grow older.
Because apparently breastfeeding is "traumatizing" and should be introduced with sex education? I don't think most mothers wait until their children have had sex ed to hand them a baby doll - so why wait to explain to them how babies should be fed and cared for? After all, we teach them that they poop and pee...isn't that kind of personal too? The fact that people are scared of "sexualizing" their daughters only points more to how sad and grim our society has become regarding the true purpose of the breast!
No wonder women still find the prospect of nursing to be "gross" or "unnatural" even (the unnatural bit always cracks me up admittedly). We avoid it like it's the plague, and treat it as if it is a major taboo.
1 comment:
fantastic post Sarah!!!
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