Eye-opening scientific insights on breastfeeding
Another Mother's View
by Hannah
My Partner is a research physician who studies
breastfeeding. If we expected women do their own research, they
would be totally unable to do it since it requires money and
time and training and staff and IRB approval, etc. Or do you
just mean his work should not be publicized but women should
have to search to find it (which is technically not research at
all)? Is medical information not news? Should we not have news
reports about new information we have on health? If we find a
way to prevent widespread obesity, or lower cancer rates, or
lower heart disease rates,* should it not be discussed too
publicly for fear that one might feel pressured to behave a
certain way? Or are you saying we should not spread that
information to others who did not hear the news reports? How
would women even know to do the "research" if they have not
been presented
My partner of course is not saying to people "you have to
breastfeed"--and neither is any activist I know. What he is
saying is that breastfeeding is healthier for the baby,
healthier for the mother, healthier for the environment, and
healthier for the economy (at the national level and at the
world level). He talks about the risks of formula because there
are profitable companies advertising that it is a basically
acceptable "choice" for women. THAT is the lie and unless
someone stands up to the formula companies, women are being
cheated into NOT HAVING ACCESS TO THE TRUTH. You don't want
anyone who supports breastfeeding to tell women about
breastfeeding, but don't you have a big problem with the
formula companies literally coming into your house via
television advertisements, supplements that arrive on your
doorstep or in your take-home bag from the hospital.
Yes, there are some women who cannot breastfeed and
certainly formula is the only widely available option right
now. And just to note, it is a very very small percentage of
women who cannot breastfeed. Women do not "loose their milk" at
all, actually, if they have support and full information except
in extraordinarily rare situations. But what is most important
is that women know that if they are not unable to breastfeed,
formula IS a choice but formula is a very POOR choice.
The dangers of cigarettes are something no doctor would shy
away from--but actually, the numbers out show that more people
die from the immediate and lifetime effects of formula feeding
than from the effects of cigarettes. Isn't that stunning????
Should we say it is a choice when we know that is true?
Sure--just as smoking cigarettes is a legal choice! But women
who are not given that information before they make their
choices are being cheated. Doctors who hand out cigarettes to
their patients who plan not to smoke are committing a travesty
that will get their medical licenses stripped away. It is not
respecting women's independence to keep the information silent;
it is instead downright paternalistic.
The crucial thing here is that we not blame mothers. Women who
make the choice to formula feed are misinformed, and so are
women who assume that it is a choice that is respectable. They
are not evil themselves, or lazy, or whatever--even though many
feel they are being condemned when people start talking about
the truth of breastfeeding. They are not at fault: our
community is and primarily the formula companies are. These
women are cheated out of the truth or cheated out of the
support by their communities. Those of us who lucked into the
medical truths we just that: lucky. Those of us who found
educated doctors or LLL or other peer counselors or just an
informal network of family and friends to support them in
learning to breastfeed are also lucky. Therefore, we MUST
spread the word about all the studies and all the support that
is out there.
Who do you think it is that is telling us that formula is
the "best start" except really "breast is best" but formula is
fine? Medical studies? No--companies with an unbelievable
amount of money spent on advertising their product. And who has
the financial interest to advertise breastfeeding? Well, maybe
pump companies (all very small) and maybe nursing clothes
companies--but these exist only because of our bottle-feeding
culture really and are not used at all by most nursers. LLL?
No, they have a shoestring budget and are almost exclusively
volunteer. There are no big bucks championing
breastfeeding--except very recently the US government who
realizes how much money the government would save in health
care expenditures as well as WIC payments and also how much
healthier the entire nation would be.
Here's a shocker I just learned: the study that started the
whole back-to-sleep campaign also studied maternal smoking and
breastfeeding. Did you know that in that very study,
breastfeeding was more protective of SIDS than sleeping
position and maternal smoking COMBINED? Why didn't this get
major press?
We don't tell women it is an equal choice to smoke. We even
tell them again to quit while they are pregnant. We don't tell
women to drink during pregnancy, even though the studies on
"fetal alcohol syndrome" are very weak. We don't tell women in
is an equal choice to let their child go without a car
seat--"hey, I did it and I'm healthy. I think it is our duty to
fight the makers of formula in their portrayal of formula as an
acceptable choice, and fight the overwhelming social milieu
that makes breastfeeding so difficult for so many women.
Caveat: If you breastfeed, you are not guaranteed a healthy
child or adult. If you bottle-feed, you are not guaranteed a
sick child or adult. This is all about level of risk. Formula
feeding increases the risk of SIDS by perhaps 7 times, etc.
etc., meaning that if no breastfed kids ever died of SIDS then
no formula kids would either, since 7 times 0 is 0. Know what I
mean?
In other words, I disagree with you. It is immoral if we do
not spread the word before women make their choices.
Hannah
*All the examples listed in the first paragraph
are self-serving here: Studies have recently come out showing
that breastfeeding reduces the rates of obesity, various
cancers, and heart disease.
Source: waldorfhomeschoolers.com/breastfeeding.htm
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