Article: Convenience to blame for poor breastfeeding rates

[BellyBelly]

No doubt this woman is going to be receiving lots of letters!

Feminists won't stay abreast
By Rita Panahi

September 06, 2007 04:00am
Article from: Reuters

THERE is an always predictable gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands when Australia's poor breastfeeding rates are released.

Latest figures show that only 10 per cent of Australian mothers are complying with the World Health Organisation recommendation that newborns be exclusively breastfed for the first six months. A whopping 70 per cent are not breastfeeding at all by this time.

Breastfeeding advocates have wasted little time in demanding extra funding as well as calling for changes in community attitudes, particularly to breastfeeding in public.

At the risk of sounding incredibly crass, may I suggest such calls are about as useful as tits on a bull.

Women's rights advocates are not beyond engaging in misinformation about the reasons behind unacceptably low breastfeeding figures.

Left-leaning feminists say the failure of mothers to do what should come naturally is the fault of an unsympathetic male-dominated society.

Of course, this is as misguided as it is mischievous and will ultimately do little to improve what is a serious health issue for the country's newest generation.

The endless rationalising by feminists of why women do not breastfeed is more to do with a political agenda than providing real answers.

The unpalatable truth they do not want to acknowledge is that despite society being supportive of breastfeeding, many smart, educated women simply choose convenience over giving their child the optimal start in life.

It's not chauvinistic male attitudes, but female prerogative that is behind Australia's poor breastfeeding record.

We have to accept that although breast is best for the baby, it may not be best for the mother.

Bottle-feeding facilitates a great many freedoms that an exclusively breastfeeding mother is simply unable to enjoy.

Bottle feeding allows a mother to leave a child with another carer, for longer than a couple of hours at a time, without the onerous task of expressing sufficient milk.

It allows them to enjoy a glass of wine with dinner without a stern lecture from their GP. It allows them to take the contraceptive pill. It allows them to wear a sheer blouse without the fear they will leak halfway through the day and look as if they're entering a one-woman wet T-shirt contest.

They can also share all-important night-time feeding duties with their partner, while they get some much needed sleep.

Simply put, bottle feeding has many charms that can be very tempting to an exhausted mother.

There needs to be a balance between what is in the best interest of a baby and offering support to mothers.

There should be a heavier burden on women to breastfeed if they are able to.

It's a woman's choice what she does with her own body, but when she is entrusted with the care of another life, whether in her womb or as a newborn, she has an added responsibility.

The importance of this should be far greater than her own needs.

It wasn't so long ago that we thought it was paternalistic to lecture women against smoking while pregnant.

Such attitudes have given way to a more sensible approach.

Some woman continue to smoke during a pregnancy, but the truth is no longer sugar coated and they are left in no doubt about the harm they are causing their unborn child.

In the US, advertising campaigns encouraging breastfeeding are starting to resemble anti-smoking ads. They employ similar tactics by adopting guilt and shame strategies to make it socially unacceptable for mothers to bottle feed.

A recent commercial featured syringes and inhalers designed to look like bottles.

While such campaigns are bound to be successful, Australia should chose a different path in its efforts to increase breastfeeding rates.

It should be recognised that some women try to breastfeed and fail due to a variety of reasons beyond their control.

A bout of sickness can have a severe impact on a mother's capacity to produce sufficient milk for a hungry child and some women find that breastfeeding does not come naturally.

In my own case, I persevered through tears and tantrums for weeks until I was finally able to breastfeed as nature intended, with ease and grace.

It can still be a challenge that at times requires precision planning, but it's a small price to pay for the peace of mind of knowing you have given your child the best start in life.

As a community we must determine what we deem of greater value, a child receiving the optimal nutrition, or a mother's right to choose an option that is more convenient to her lifestyle?

Rita Panahi is a social commentator

[Roryrory]

Just putting my post in again...

OMG I can't believe that writer is saying that societal attitudes to BF don't have a big impact!

Personally I never had any probs BF anywhere in public but I am sure as hell aware of plenty of women who did/do.

And I was lucky to be really well educated about BF before I had my DS (something I think which went a long way to be not having even the slightest problem with it - but I am in no way saying successful BF is all in the women's hands by any means!!) but I am sure as hell aware of plenty of women who weren't as lucky or had the knowledge or support that I did.

I wonder if "social commentators" like the author of the article get paid extra if they generate a lot of "letters to the editor"........

and adding:

What I would find really interesting is a survey that looks at how many women can continue to BF AFTER returning to work - now THAT would really tell us alot about whether society as a whole is supportive of BF. Personally I managed to keep BF going until I got pg but that is only because I had a room dedicated to me at work within which I could express and the flexibility to do so whenever it suited me (ie: I was not only "allowed" to do it on my break times). It was still a hassle, though, lugging all the equipment in and making trips to and from the fridge all day to store the milk.

But I wonder how many women have such a supportive work environment??

And here is my final vent - I HATE it when the media does this "divide and conquer" thing with mothers. As long as the media keeps starting fights like this, between BF and non-BF mothers, between stay-at-home-"mums" and working "mothers" (note the difference!) and so on, we will be focused on fighting eachotehr rather than fighting for the benefit of ALL mothers and ALL children and ALL families.

GRRRRR!

[Lucy]

Ok, I am going to go out on a limb here and say that, for me personally, she echoes a lot of my own personal feelings towards breastfeeding.

I chose to breastfeed each of my babies and I made it a personal goal to get to 6 months at least. I knew that it was the best nutrition for them and I had enough prior knowlege to persevere through some tough starts.

BUT, and I will be totally honest here: there was many a day and night when I wholeheartedly wished that I could relinquish all breastfeeding responsibility, for all the convenient reasons the commentator suggests......the odd glass of wine, the freedom to go out without leaking/stressing etc.

For all 3 of my babies it was a close call as to whether they were FF or BF. Social support was not an issue for me at all: I had familial and local support and education all on my side. Education was not an issue: I gave birth to all 3 of them knowing "breast was best". I had a great supply and minimal issues with breastfeeding (in comparison to many others.) But all those positives aside, I still found the concept of ff very very tempting.

The only thing that stopped me from FF from birth, I think, was the fact that I told myself "it is a small proce to pay for a fairly short period of time". My conscience then made me get to 6 months with each of them......

So whilst I am not sure I like the tone of the article, it did strike some cords with me and my personal feelings toward breastfeeding.........

(Please note that these are just my own personal feelings. I guess it goes to show that, for me, support, education and knowlege can all be in place, but breastfeeding, for me, was still a chore.)

[Janie]

That article has really upset me. I really don't like the tone she has taken, and have taken offense to her comments (although I know I'm being over the top and paranoid!).

Despite all the help in the world I am unable to fully breastfeed my baby. I feel that I have done, and am doing, everything I can, but we still need to comp feed with formula. I am slowly coming to terms with that, and getting used to it, instead of feeling bitter everyday........but words like those above make me take a few steps back. I LOVE breastfeeding, I just wish that I was able to satisfy my son with my milk alone. That is not to be, but I am very proud of the efforts I am making to continue BFing. I already feel like a failure when I FF in public, how am I going to feel if society 'shames' mothers who HAVE to do so?

ETA I agree Sarah. I understand mothers feeling like they want some time off from BFing so they can have a break for whatever reason, but I find it hard to believe that anyone could find bottle feeding more convenient. I do both, and BFing is much easier IMO (in that it's portable etc).

[Smoke Jaguar]

I'm going to refrain from writing an essay here (having already written one for uni and about to embark on a health education promotion assignment aimed at getting more mothers to breastfeed for longer, and exclusively for 6 months!) and just say that all her points about formula being more 'convenient' can actually be challenged. Breastfeeding can be shown to be as beneficial for mothers as well as the babies they are feeding. We tend to forget that, or we shun the notion that mothers get something out of it, too. How about it is really good for protection against PND? Tackle PND and you get less women who resent not being able to have a drink, who resent not being able to get away from their kids etc...because without PND, women can see their goals clearer, and have a nicer perspective of what they are doing for their kids.
That's all for now. I'll keep reading the responses though!

[~Saram~]

Lucy - I think we have all thought this way at some point or another on our BF journey, well at least I have.

In general though I have to say when I had my Ds I was very big on the must BF, got the guilts over giving a little formula when getting married and then when I went back to uni (just couldn't expres enough at first to cover his demand due to travel) etc

But with DD I am much more realistic, I learnt from BF DS that your boobs are very flexible and yes you can give a bottle occassionally and generally nothing bad is going to happen. I think more should be done to educate women about the ability to do both. Lets face it we women have been told we can have it all for years now. My SIL is sucessfully BF and Bottle feeding her 3mth old as she has returned to work and does an amazing job IMO.

Having said all that I find it hard to believe that bottlefeeding is more convenient than BF. Yes I make up a bottle for DD when somewhere it is impossible to BF (ie Little athletics with adventurous 4 yo and heavy weight 6mth old) and when I go away for a few hours - I dislike expressing immensley but find the ardous task of making bottle with boiled water, sterilising equipment, carting bottle (spilling bottle) wahing bottles up (and mess fromspilling bottle) heating bottle in winter etc much more of a PITA than leaking boobs.

[Roryrory]

Lucy I gotta admit I agree with you on this a bit. As you know we want 3 kids, all 18 months apart (I know I am mad ) and if we get our wish it will be some time in 2010 before I am not either going to be pregnant or breastfeeding. I didn't find BF a chore (expressing at work was another matter) but that is still a looooong time to not "own" your body.....

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Bottle-feeding facilitates a great many freedoms that an exclusively breastfeeding mother is simply unable to enjoy.

Bottle feeding allows a mother to leave a child with another carer, for longer than a couple of hours at a time, without the onerous task of expressing sufficient milk.

It allows them to enjoy a glass of wine with dinner without a stern lecture from their GP. It allows them to take the contraceptive pill. It allows them to wear a sheer blouse without the fear they will leak halfway through the day and look as if they're entering a one-woman wet T-shirt contest.

They can also share all-important night-time feeding duties with their partner, while they get some much needed sleep.

Simply put, bottle feeding has many charms that can be very tempting to an exhausted mother.

Really?

I can leave DS with another carer as he will take breast and bottle. He is mostly breastfed, and yes he has solids now, but he has always been happy taking both breast and bottle so I could leave him if I so wished. But why would I want to leave my darling baby for hours? I'm his Mummy, he's my Baby, why would we want to be seperated? (BTW, when I go back to work I can go to the nursery to breastfeed my boy, although I don't think the others in the office would be very pleased with me for that.)

I enjoy wine with dinner - just not right now. Not too much of a price to pay, especially when there are so many nice wine alternatives out there; why is alcohol the be-all and end-all? I don't need the Pill, my periods haven't returned yet and I'd be annoyed at taking it for as little sex as I'm getting right now. I wear whatever I want, none of these ugly feeding tops, and you can get pads that don't let you leak (Lilypadz, I love you!). I wouldn't share night feeds with DH anyway - he has to go to work in the morning and we can lie in. Plus, who wants to sit up for 15-20 minutes with a bottle - after you've made it - when you can just latch on and go back to sleep? If it were really, really that bad then I could let DH do a night with bottles and resume breastfeeding at night the next night.

Breastfeeding coming naturally? I remember curling my toes and kicking the floor every feed those early weeks. It's hard work - but why wouldn't you do it for your baby? The me-first culture has a LOT to answer for. What on earth is wrong with putting someone else's needs above your own: I do that with DH and DS and yes, it can wear sometimes and I do need some me-time, but why should I demand to be selfish all the time? We HAVE to consider other people every day, why not put the people most important to us first - I do, DH does, OK so DS doesn't yet but he's a baby and has yet to mature. Our culture has to mature into one that puts the needs of our children before the wants of ourselves.

Not that bottlefeeders are selfish, that's just the culture we're in ATM and responsible for the attitude of "I want to go out and have wine and wear this outfit" rather than "My baby NEEDS me" so eloquently spoken of in this article.

[Matryoshka]

I understand you Lucy, i often felt the weight of extreme SOLE responsibility on my shoulders in having a baby who would only BF and only take ebm from me. It was draining at times but like you i felt that it was a small sacrifice for what is considered the optimal milk source. And over time i did begin to enjoy just as much as he did.

Apart from feeling the pressure of being the only one able to feed my DS - he's 14 months and i still cannot leave him for more than about 3 hours - but honestly why would i want to be away longer than that?

I find BF incredibly convenient and i wonder if a stream of ads showing the convenience of bf might affect its perceived inconvenience quite positively.

I also wear sexy underwire bras with pretty tops, i haven't leaked since DS was one month old, i've had the odd glass of wine with dinner and given him EBM. I have also been deathly ill with the flu and still produced milk and fed my son.


The last line of the article bothers me................................................ ................

While i dont think childbearing and feeding should be viewed as an inonvenience, you have to accept that it changes things in your life and that its okay to be "put out" for a while, a few years of "inconvenience" isn't too much in the grand scheme of life (should you happen to find it inconvenient)

[Matryoshka]

I think she's saying its important that a woman have the right to choose what is more convenient. My opinion on her last comment was:

While i dont think childbearing and feeding should be viewed as an inonvenience, you have to accept that it changes things in your life and that its okay to be "put out" for a while, a few years of "inconvenience" isn't too much in the grand scheme of life (should you happen to find it inconvenient)

[BellyBelly]

I think this woman is pretty ill-informed when so much evidence provided to the Inquiry (including results of a large poll from this very website) stating that even mothers themselves believe that misinformation is a major problem. As has been discussed earlier, around 5% of women cannot physically breastfeed, yet so many others can't - a lack of support, information and care... I think this woman is digging up the wrong hole, but I can also see what she is getting at.

[BellyBelly]

Agreed

[paradise lost]

Am i the only person here who gave EBM, exercised, had coffee and drank alcohol while i was breastfeeding?!

I didn't find BFing inconvenient but equally i didn't take the most virtuous approach to it. I didn't have OJ or chocolate for the first 6 weeks because it made DD throw up and that was more hassle than the "treat" was worth. But she grew out of it and i did have OJ and chocolate then. I even had *gasp* wine/beer on occasion. I remember doing the maths at the time and figuring it'd be out of my system by the next feed but i also remember not being too worried about it. In the 70's they used to give women alcohol after birth to bring on the milk (and during PG to slow premature labour!) and most of us seem to have survived that. Besides the blood and milk share the same alcohol level. 0.1% blood alcohol is fairly drunk but 0.1% alcohol in milk is still counted as a non-alcoholic beverage.

I can remember a few years back seeing a programme on what chemicals can get from our food/perfume/deodorant/furniture into our breastmilk. It also detailed on how a strict 3-day detox every 3 months could reduce the chemical levels as the starvation induces fat-cell mobilisation which releases the chemicals for your liver to deal with. No WONDER women find it easier to FF when they're told that they have to do x y and z if they are to BF. No drinking, no eating nuts, no caffiene, no underarm deodorants, no intense workouts, you name it. As with so many things it isn't the breastfeeding but the breastfeeding "right" which might put people off.

As for the writer about you have to wonder WHO was tantruming - not a week-old baby for sure! I guess i felt if anything it was that the article was trying to inflame all sides without actually saying anything.

Bx

[Janie]

I guess i felt if anything it was that the article was trying to inflame all sides without actually saying anything.

Bx

I totally agree Bec! I think she was trying to be pro-BF, but didn't really manage to pass on that message well.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Bec, I have a very occasional sip of wine, but I like my drink too much and more than that would mean I've drunk too much as my wine glasses will hold a full bottle! I have decaff and chocolate rarely, but that doesn't bother me. I exercise just fine. DS also has the odd bottle of formula and EBM - I'm less virtuous than you! I also love that it takes me 2 seconds to get ready for a feed, as opposed to bottle mums who take longer - I was chatting to mums with bottles today and all our littlies wanted feeding.

Nuts is the hard one for me, because DH has an allergy I can't eat them. But that's not a biggie really, when you weigh up how much I love my Liebling!

I just think that the article sums up what's wrong with today's culture - not being "me-first" all the time isn't a bad thing, and breastfeeding (if you can!) is such a little thing for you to put someone else first about for you but so big for them.

[Roryrory]

Am i the only person here who gave EBM, exercised, had coffee and drank alcohol while i was breastfeeding?!

Nah (hand up) me too Hoobley.

[Bathsheba]

Nah (hand up) me too Hoobley.

Me too!

[Phteven]

No Bec, you're not the only one I didn't eliminate a single thing from my diet to breastfeed. Not even in the very early days. I don't drink so it's not an issue and its never occured to me that excercise and BF mightn't be compatible (although Imran hates chlorine boobs).