If breastmilk is so great, why don't more mothers nurse? It seems like every mother should want the best for her children, yet according to the Nutrition Examination Survey published by the CDC in April 2008, only 33% of infants are exclusively breastfed at three months and a mere 17% of those babies were still nursing at 6 months.
When split into socioeconomic categories, the FDA's Infant Feeding Practices Study conducted in 2007 found that the breastfeeding rates for women eligible for WIC are much lower than those not on the program. Only 34% of WIC mothers are still nursing at 6 months compared to 67% of higher income mothers.
To me, the reason for this is clear: WIC provides free formula coupons and when the benefit of saving $1,500 in formula costs during the baby's first year becomes moot, the motivation to continue to nurse diminishes. But why? Well the answer for that lies with our society as a whole.
According to the Surgeon General's Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding, published on January 20, 2011, Surgeon General Regina Benjamin writes that in America, breasts have often been regarded primarily as sexual objects, while their nurturing function is downplayed. The perception of breasts as sexual objects have led women to become uncomfortable with breastfeeding in public and feeling the need to conceal breastfeeding has caused women to choose to supplement or stop nursing altogether.
Miranda Kerr, Victoria's Secret model and wife to Orlando Bloom, posted this picture on her personal blog at Koraorganics.com on January 18, 2011 to introduce their new baby boy.
Some of the comments were shocking. While many posted with congratulations and support, there were others who felt the photo was inappropriate. One user in particular called "Tiffany" wrote: "This is not a photo for the public. This is no different than a woman having sex in public for everyone to see... Absolutely disgusting."
Yet...
The July '09 issue of Rolling Stone featured Kerr on the cover... completely nude. No one threw a fit about that.
Heidi Klum shows us that we can't sell a pair of jeans without a topless woman.
And apparently we can't market cell phones without showing skin either.
No one in America is flipping out over these images, but
This is considered obscene??
Companies know that sex sells and formula companies use this to their advantage by doing the opposite. Their advertisements show either the baby alone or they portray the wholesome mother: completely covered and using bottles to feed their babies. This is only one of many formula marketing ploys.
Interestingly, the United States is the only country in the United Nations which allows formula companies to market at all. Leave it to the American Dream and free enterprise to give these corporations the opportunity to destroy breastfeeding relationships all in the name of profit. Don't believe me? Mead Johnson, the company that makes Enfamil Infant formula, posted 4th quarter 2010 profits equalling 99.6 million dollars. According to ABC news, when the Department of Health and Human Services wanted to publish a series of commercials promoting breastfeeding back in 2004, all three formula companies (Nestle, Mead Johnson and Abbott) filed personal grievances during a private meeting with HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson -- a meeting that pro-breastfeeding groups were excluded from. The result? The DHHS ditched the ads. I wonder how much political campaign money was offered to get them to change their mind? It was an election year, after all.
When my son was 5 weeks old, and again at 12 weeks, I recieved packages in the mail from Similac which contained 6 full cans of powdered formula. The company knew exactly what they were doing here -- they weren't trying to be generous and the timing was not at all random.
Kellymom.com, a website written by a lactation consultant, states that during a growth spurt, breastfed babies nurse more often than usual (sometimes as often as every hour), they are fussier than normal and have more trouble sleeping. Six weeks and four months are the two most common periods of doubt for the breastfeeding mother. Due to lack of information, they begin to fear that they are no longer producing enough milk since their baby is always hungry and their breasts no longer feel full. By sending free formula during these time periods, the moms may be more tempted to "try" a bottle, which then leads to two bottles, and then to three and the next thing you know, mom is relying heavily on formula if not weaning the baby completely and is then giving 50 to 60 dollars per week to the formula companies.
Now that you've seen society's take on nursing and you've been made aware of the fact that the formula companies are much more interested in money than in the health of your baby, you can see just how important a strong support system is for the breastfeeding mother. With formula being shoved down our throats and strangers feeling as if they have the right to tell us to feed our baby in a public bathroom stall -- gross! -- if we don't have the support of our husbands, boyfriends, mothers, sisters, brothers, fathers and friends... there is no way that we'll be able to overcome the pressure to pull out a bottle.
So the next time you see a woman nursing an infant in public, smile at her. Tell her "Good for you!" The more support a breastfeeding mother has, the better chance she'll have of continuing to nurse throughout infancy and perhaps even into toddler hood. Maybe she'll be lucky enough to go to bed one night and ask her almost three-year-old if he's ready to nurse and have him respond lovingly with, "No, Mommy. I don't need milkies anymore. I just want you to hold my hand."
This article was written by Erica Rutherford, a fan of Natural Pregnancy Mentor
