Harpers - The Tyranny of Breast Feeding

[REP]

I think this essay makes some very interesting points, especially this one: "It has become the defining feature of a philosophy in which motherhood, and only mother-hood, determines a woman’s status and her role in society."

Here's the first part of the essay (the line breaks are weird because Harper's does not provide plain-text versions):

It began with a picnic in a
Chicago suburb in the sum-
mer of 1956. Two mothers,
Mary White and Marian Thompson, were sitting un-
der a tree, breast-feeding
their babies. Several other
women came over to express
their admiration, because
they themselves had found breast-feeding so difficult. To
Mary and Marian, the prac-
tice epitomized womanliness
and should be possible for all mothers. Along with five like-minded friends, they be-
gan La Leche League to help,
mother to mother, women
who wanted to breast-feed
but were discouraged by fear
or difficulty. Several of the founders were Catholic and
active members of the Chris-
tian Family Movement,
known for its traditionalist views. They took inspiration from its model of small discussion groups that offered their participants mutual support.
The first meeting took place in Mary White’s living room in October 1956. Every three weeks, mothers
Elisabeth Badinter’s most recent book, The Conflict: How Modern Motherhood Un- dermines the Status of Women, from which this essay was adapted, will be pub- lished in April by Metropolitan Books.
came together to talk about the ad- vantages of breast-feeding, share ad- vice, and help one another succeed. League meetings were so popular that more and more groups were set up, spreading throughout the United States: 43 in 1961, 1,260 in 1971, near- ly 3,000 in 1976. There were 17,000 group leaders by 1981, and the breast- feeding rate in the United States rose from 38 percent in 1948 to 60 percent by the mid-1980s. The group leaders
these needs are fixed by nature, and we have come to understand them better over time. Four major themes are also prominent in LLL literature: the moral authority of nature, the advantages of breast-feeding, the superior status of the mother in child-rearing, and her es- sential role in the moral reform of soci- ety. Although the last two, being more political and polemical, were mostly downplayed, they seem to reveal a great deal about the league’s purpose.

More

[Crunchy Frog]

1. The evil breastfeeding conspiracy.

[REP]

2. Did you read the entire essay?

That's not what it's about.

[Confusious]

6. It'd help if you didn't link to a site

That requires a subscription.

[Warpy]

3. Oh, good grief

The women I know who breastfed didn't want to mess around with the bottles and sterilizers and other crap their mothers had wrestled with back in the age of "scientific" baby feeding in the 40s and 50s. The fact that the kid drew a lot of extra benefit from the tit was secondary to that.

Politics didn't enter into it.

[REP]

4. The thing is the "extra benefits" are over hyped and women are guilted into it

Shouldn't it be a choice made freely?

Did you read the entire essay? I thought it was fascinating, but as a Childfree woman not defined by motherhood, my perspective may be different.

[Warpy]

5. Since you didn't quote the whole thing and Harper's didn't make it available

I didn't read the whole essay.

Feeding a baby with your own body is one of those intimate decisions every woman makes for herself. The only people with any hope of guilting her into it for a short period of time--and it's not going to last if she's really opposed--are the infant's blood relatives.

[REP]

7. Ah crap. Wasn't aware it wasn't available. I'd copy the whole thing except for DU's copyright rules.

[Confusious]

8. Studies have said it's better

I'll take their word over a laywoman with an agenda any day. If you were a layMAN with an agenda, I'd feel the same way.

I included that last line because I figured you'd say something like "Oh, but you'd probably take a layMAN's word, wouldn't you?"

[REP]

9. For immunity, if continued 3-6 months

The broad assertions of the benefits of breast-feeding were challenged in an article published in the Octo- ber 2007 issue of the British Medical Journal. In a study of 17,046 Belorus- sian infants carried out over six years, Michael Kramer of Canada’s McGill University concluded that breast-feeding did not in fact offer greater protection against asthma or allergies. A year earlier, British statis- tician Geoff Der had published a much-discussed study on the subject of cognitive development and breast- feeding. Analyzing the I.Q.’s of more than 5,000 children and their 3,000 mothers, he concluded there was ab- solutely no link between I.Q. and breast-feeding. By observing families in which one child had been breast- fed and the other not, he confirmed that the key factor contributing to the child’s I.Q. was the mother’s I.Q., and that breast-feeding had no influence. Yet these striking results have done nothing to stop breast-feeding activists from allowing us to believe the contrary.

As for your comments, I wonder why you are attacking me personally. I did not write this essay.

[Confusious]

17. I can probably find 10 studies that say they do have those benefits.

And.. The closeness of the mother and child is a benefit in itself. Children need that bond. I am a walking example of what happens when that bond is broken, or never made. 20+ years of shrinks.

Here's a study that's not 5 years old...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/05/breastfeeding-study-on-be_n_525180.html

[REP]

21. It's a reference from the essay, quoted in my OP

Though I have noticed, among some feminists (not here - in meatspace) that motherhood is the penultimate expression of feminism, and women who had identities outside of "mother" are somehow incomplete, inferior and/or deficient. I see this attitude in some of the militant 'lactivists' as well, only their judgement extends to women who can't or don't want breast feed for whatever reason (such as yours; travel for work; low-income earners who can't pump/store, etc).

I am childfree, so of course I disagree that motherhood is the end-all and be-all for female achievement. One size doesn't fit all

If I remember, I'll upload page images to my account and give the links to the images of the essay later. Pretty busy week, and my mind has new holes every day ...

[gkhouston]

22. I wouldn't; sounds like potential copyright trouble.

Me, I always thought living the life you feel is right for you and allowing other women the freedom to do the same is the ultimate expression of feminism.

[REP]

23. Yeah, me too - guess I'm radical!

[Catherina]

24. Same here. Well said n/t

[Adriennecliona]

28. Women are incredibly sad when they cannot breastfeed.

Please read my PhD research on how incredibly sad and difficult it is for women who experience difficulty in breastfeeding. No, it is not that they did not want to mess with the bottles, and when breastfeeding is tough babies suffer from the stress and axiety they pick up on from their mothers.

[saras]

10. It's one of those questions that was scientifically settled before the backwards march started...

It's better for the mom's health, it's better for the baby's health, it's better for the relationship, if someone who WANTS a child has a lifestyle that conflicts with this, they need a lifestyle change, poverty notwithstanding.

I think it's within the range of individual choice, but the idea that they're even comparable is largely due to the industry carefully picking what to study and what questions to ask. Places with more public-health science find different things than America, especially post-Reagan.

The article tells a counter-story - that of people rejecting postwar consumerism based on results rather than on politics - as though it was the main story, and consumerism was an accidental happenstance, a byproduct of progress rather than a willfully constructed antifeminist movement. The LaLeche League people discovered that not just formula, but the culture associated with it and babies, sucked. Other than that they were fairly typical fifties moms, immersed in the culture of their times except where it obviously failed. That is, they liked breast feeding because it was better, and they framed it in terms of mom and apple pie because that's how everybody thought, especially conservatives like them.

In a way we're lucky they framed it in a system that's so irrelevant and outdated. It's better for breastfeeding to be judged on its merits in the present than in whatever originally sourced it.

It has become the defining feature of a philosophy in which motherhood, and only motherhood, determines a woman’s status and her role in society

To me, this just seems bizarre, and the surrounding article doesn't help at all. The people who feel this way about motherhood (mostly the radical right) have generally little interest in the kind of nurturing involved in breastfeeding - in my experience, anyways, and they philosophically prefer industry and commercial products anyways.

Maybe other parts of the country are different, but nearly everyone I've known who has valued breastfeeding has been progressive, pro-women's rights, often feminist, sometimes radical feminist - but both of those in the SAME philosophy? I've seen it a few times in letters to the editor of Mothering magazine, but not in real life.

It's fairly typical of a certain school of postmodernists who basically hold progressives responsible for nearly all of fascism - they blame utopians for prisons, they ignore Skinner and Watson and blame Dewey for everything bad in education, and anything "feminist" that suggests there's more to the world than filling the male role, whether "female" or outside the male/female box, is reactionary and dominionist, especially humane child care - which to me says a lot more about THEIR purposes than their politics.

If that's your thing, it's typical Harpers' quality. If it's NOT your thing, check out LaLeche League's website for what they're doing this decade.

To me, motherhood is something like playing music, or being part of a successful political collective, or having a spiritual experience, or loving the experience of speed. Some people get it and some don't; the ones that do it aren't necessarily the ones that get it; the failures are obvious.

[Nikia]

11. Breast feeding was a good choice for my little boy and I

He was never given formula ever and did not have any solids until he was 6 months old. I stopped breast feeding around 20 months.
While this required a lot of discipline and dedication on my part, I am glad that I did it.
He was not sick at all during his time with only breast milk as nourishment. I did not have to waste any money on formula. I did not have to worry about preparing a bottle in the middle of the night or when we were out. I was below my pre pregnancy weight when he was 6 months old.
What I did have to worry about though was pumping at work. I was allowed to do this most of the time, although sometimes the room suddenly became occupied at my usual time. A few people started to give me grief by the time he was six months old. I also worried about people disapproving of me breast feeding in public. This did keep me going places less than I probably would have otherwise. It also meant breast feeding in the parking lot in the car when we went on shopping trips to a bigger city.
I know that women have a variety of reasons why they breast feed and why they don't. In general though, I think that society is more judgemental of breast feeding women than those who do not. There are people who disapprove of women breast feeding in public. There are employers who do not wish to accomodate lactating women. There are people that are concerned about people breast feeding their child too long, even for infants under a year. While there are a few articles written extoling the benefits of breast feeding, most articles in magazines aimed at mothers of infants are pro formula to some extent.
I don't know about the Founders of LLL but in the present day, I think that this organization enables more women to have more of a choice not less. It is not much of a choice after all if no one helps a new mother breast feed and feeds her baby formula from the the beginning, if breast feeding in public could get a woman arrested, or if an employer would forbid a woman from pumping breast milk at work.

[clyrc]

12. The best thing about breastfeeding, for me, was my health improvement

I loved the closeness of breastfeeding, and the convenience, and the price, but honestly, I didn't have allergies or asthma or stomach problems when breastfeeding. I didn't even catch the nasty stomach virus that EVERYONE else caught the year I was feeding my oldest daughter. I have been plagued by bad health most of my life, but I was super healthy when breastfeeding and there was never any question about doing the same thing with my second daughter. I would never try to guilt anyone else into breastfeeding, but I have told other people how good it was for me.

[Catherina]

13. I think breastfeeding is great. Fight profit-making companies like Nestlé

I understand why so many women can't do it in our modern society but when nature gives you something so great for free why enrich corporations who make baby formula?

Does anyone here remember the Nestlé scandal when Nestle was giving poor breast-feeding African women free formula to dry up the milk in their breasts and hook them as customers for profit so a bunch of rich people could get richer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott

Then a few years later, there was Nestlé again, with melamine-tainted baby formula in South Africa
http://thebovine.wordpress.com/2008/11/27/nestle-ordered-to-recall-melamine-tainted-baby-formula-in-south-africa/



And they're in the news again. In case you can't tell, I hate Nestlé.

I'm sorry, I couldn't embed the first links to make this neater. The software stripped them out so I did it the old-fashioned way

Nestlé Chairman brings shame to the University of Alberta

Press release 10 February 2012

In the media:

Edmonton Journal 10 February: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Professors+fear+honorary+degree+Nestle+will+harm+international+reputation/6136088/story.html

- EJ 14 February: http://www.canada.com/news/Simons+Albertans+must+judge+whether+Nestle+executive+good+choice+honourary+degree/6153385/story.html

- EJ 29 February:http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Updated+Debate+continues+swirl+over+honorary+degree+Nestle+exec/6229038/story.html

Baby Milk Action mentions: Vue Weekly 15 February - CBC radio 28 February.

Update 29 February: Over 70 organizations from more than 20 countries condemn Brabeck-Letmathe honorary degree

Update 1 March: Protests outside (CBC News) and inside (Edmonton Journal) degree ceremony.

...

The University of Alberta is receiving messages of protest from around the world as it plans to award Mr. Peter Brabeck-Latmathé, the Chair and former Chief Executive Officer of Nestlé, an honorary degree for contributing to "the preservation, distribution and management of one of humanity’s most vital resources: water." The protests are because the company, which is the holder of a "Least Ethical Company" award (left), is criticised for practices including destruction of water resources, marketing baby foods inappropriately, trade union busting and other issues (click here). Campaigners warn that the University of Alberta will make itself a laughing stock if it goes ahead with presenting the honorary degree to Mr. Brabeck on 1 March.

Baby Milk Action's partners in the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), Infact Canada, stated: "INFACT Canada joins the Council of Canadians in condemning University of Alberta’s plans to award Mr. Peter Brabeck-Latmathlé an honorary degree. Instead, the University should criticize Nestlé’s destructive business practices and inform the company that there is no honour for the CEO!" - click here.

Click here for the page for emailing the University of Alberta, organised by the Council of Canadians.

Click here to join the campaign event on Facebook.

Click here to register to attend the degree presentation at the University of Alberta - the event will also be live streamed.

Baby Milk Action has first-hand knowledge of Nestlé's shameful behaviour regarding its Pure Life brand of bottled water and the harm caused to the historic water park in the spa town of São Lourenço in Brazil (click here). One of the Brazilian campaigners appeared as a witness in January 2012 in a court case brought against Nestlé in Switzerland for spying on campaigners - click here.

A new film, Bottled Life, examines one aspect of Nestlé's exploitation of water: its Pure Life brand. The trailer is below:

Baby Milk Action is in ongoing commucation with Mr. Brabeck regarding violations of international baby milk marketing standards, which he refuses to stop. Accordingly, Baby Milk Action is asking supporters to email the University of Alberta to call on it to withdraw the honorary degree and instead suggest to Mr. Brabeck that he respond to campaigners' concerns. Nestlé's Global Public Affairs Manager admits that Nestlé is "widely boycotted". An independent survey has found it to be one of the four most boycotted companies on the planet - click here.

Mike Brady, Campaigns and Networking Coordinator at Baby Milk Action, said:

Mr. Brabeck has a cabinet full of shaming awards for the way he runs Nestlé, putting profits before human rights and the environment. In my view, Mr. Brabeck deserves to be in court, not receiving an honorary degree. Indeed, Nestlé is in court in India for failing to label baby milk correctly and sanctions include the possibility of imprisonment for the Managing Director - not surprisingly Nestlé has been fighting the case for nearly two decades. More recently, as part of the Nestlé Critics coalition, we have reported Nestlé to the UN Global Compact for egregious violations of the Global Compact Principles, including for its impact on water. Did the University of Alberta carry out any form of due diligence when selecting Mr. Brabeck for an honorary degree?

...

Notes for editors

1. Nestlé Chairman, Peter Brabeck-Letmathé, is spearheading the Water Resources Group, a joint venture with the World Bank. According to Corporate Accountability International: "In order to be eligible for support from this new fund, all projects must 'provide for at least one partner from the private sector,' not simply as a charitable funder, but 'as part of its operations.'" The US-based group commented: "Global water corporations must not be allowed to tap into public ‘development funds’ to promote their private agenda because case after case shows that profitability and fulfillment of human rights in the water sector are at odds."

2. Nestlé has rolled out labels in 120 countries claiming its formula "protects" babies, although babies fed on formula are more likely to become ill than breastfed babies and, in conditions of poverty, more likely to die (left, a promotional leaflet distributed to health facilities in Armenia by Nestlé in 2011). It also refuses to bring instructions into line with World Health Organisation guidelines to reduce the risks to babies fed on formula. According to UNICEF: "Improved breastfeeding practices and reduction of artificial feeding could save an estimated 1.5 million children a year."

Mr. Brabeck has been closely involved in the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate, which received the Greenwash Award 2010 prior to the World Economic Forum - click here.

3. Other shaming awards received by Nestlé included:

Black Planet Award 2007: Awarded by Ethecon for the irresponsible marketing of baby food contaminated by genetically manipulated nutrition, their tolerance of child labour and monopolisation of water resources - click here.

Public Eye Award 2005: Overwhelming winner of the "People's Choice" award for "for its practice of marketing baby food and formula in the developing world by encouraging women to use their products instead of nursing their children."

Least Ethical Company Award 2003: Awarded by Ethical Consumer Magazine after a public vote - click here.

UK Food Group World Food Day Shaming Award 1998: The "Lot of Bottle" award for promoting baby milk to mothers in the Philippines with staff presented as "Health Educators" - click here.

This list is incomplete. Please add details of other shaming awards to the comments.


http://info.babymilkaction.org/pressrelease/pressrelease10feb12

FEBRUARY 10, 2012

EDMONTON - University of Alberta president Indira Samarasekera is facing heat for the decision to give an honorary degree to the CEO of controversial global food giant Nestle Corporation, the world’s largest producer of bottled water and promoter of water privatization.

To honour experts for their contribution to water management, the U of A will give honorary degrees next month to Nestle CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe along with U of A professor emeritus Steve Hrudey, and from India, Sunita Narain, an expert in water security, conservation and pollution control.

Nestle, a major promoter of water privatization, was for years been under fire for the way it markets infant formula in Third World countries where mothers do not have access to clean water and literacy is low.

...

As recently as 2011, Nestle was cited in Laos for violating the World Health Organization code of the marketing of breast milk substitutes, Kaler said.

...

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Professors+fear+honorary+degree+Nestle+will+harm+international+reputation/6136088/story.html

Occupy Edmonton is on it!

[Catherina]

14. The great Nestle boycott

The great Nestle boycott

Perhaps you’ve heard about the Nestle boycott before, but never really understood why it is going on. I hope the information below, including a list of all products Nestle sells, will be helpful in your quest to educate yourself on the subject.

Here’s an article – Eye witness evidence of Nestle© malpractice on eve of demonstration (http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/05/370977.html) – with links to several other sites/articles on the topic.

Nestle© is the target of an international boycott because of its aggressive marketing of baby foods. A newspaper article and new film reveal how Nestle© continues to undermine breastfeeding, breaking international marketing standards, where laws have yet to be introduced and enforced.

See also, Formula for Disaster – a five part UNICEF documentary series available on YouTube.

This eye-opening documentary reveals how the marketing of powdered milk has caused fewer mothers to breastfeed in the Philippines – including those who can ill afford artificial milk and suffer its harmful consequences. The milk companies’ formula for profits is a formula for disaster.

Part 1 of 5

Part 2 of 5

Part 3 of 5

Part 4 of 5

Part 5 of 5

From UNICEF – Rally for breastfeeding – Mothers demand truth about infant formula (http://www.unicef.org/philippines/news/070202.html)

Over 100 formula feeding mothers and their babies protested in front of infant formula manufacturers’ offices, claiming milk advertisements have deceived them into giving their babies infant formula instead of breastmilk.

“My message to the milk companies is to stop deceiving those who buy infant formula,” says Nadine Sylvano, mother of five children. “They say that their milk is good for children’s brains, will make children healthy, stout and give strong bones. But it’s not true.”

Also check out Baby Milk Action

Baby Milk Action is a non-profit organization which aims to save lives and to end the avoidable suffering caused by inappropriate infant feeding. Baby Milk Action works within a global network to strengthen independent, transparent and effective controls on the marketing of the baby feeding industry.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1.5 million infants die around the world every year because they are not breastfed. Where water is unsafe a bottle-fed child is up to 25 times more likely to die as a result of diarrhea than a breastfed child.

That is why a marketing code was introduced in 1981 to regulate the marketing of breastmilk substitutes. Companies continue to violate its provisions. Find out how Baby Milk Action works to stop them and how you can help.

Baby Milk Action is not anti-baby milk. Our work protects all mothers and infants from irresponsible marketing.

There is even more information available on Wikipedia.

…Knowledge is power….

http://crunchydomesticgoddess.com/2007/05/19/the-great-nestle-boycott/

[Catherina]

15. Nestle boycott list

According to NestleUSA.com, here is a (very LONG) list of their USA brands. (The Nestle UK brand list can be found here.)
* 100 GRAND®
* ADDITIONS
* AFTER EIGHT® Biscuits & Mints
* ALBERS® Corn Meal and Grits
* ALPO®
* ALPO® COME ‘N GET IT®
* AQUARI-YUMS cat treats
* BABY RUTH®
* BACI®
* BEGGIN’ STRIPS® dog treats
* BENEFUL® dog food
* BIT-O-HONEY®
* BOTTLE CAPS®
* BUITONI®
* BUITONI® Risotto & Foccacia Bread Mix
* BUSY BONE dog treats
* BUTTERFINGER®
* CARLOS V®
* CAT CHOW® cat food
* CHEF-MATE®
* CHEW-RIFIC dog treats
* CHUNKY®
* COFFEE-MATE®
* COFFEE-MATE LATTE CREATIONS
* CROISSANT POCKETS® brand sandwiches
* CRUCIAL®
* DELI-CAT® cat food
* DOG CHOW® dog food
* FAA
* FANCY FEAST® cat food
* FRISKIES® canned & dry cat food
* GOBSTOPPERS®
* GOOBERS®
* GOOD START® Infant Formulas
* HI PRO® dog food
* HOT POCKETS® brand sandwiches
* KIBBLES AND CHUNKS® dog food
* KIT ‘N KABOODLE® cat food
* KITTEN CHOW® cat food
* KLIM®
* LA LECHERA® Sweetened Condensed Milk
* LAFFY TAFFY®
* LEAN CUISINE®
* LEAN POCKETS® brand sandwiches
* LIBBY’S® Pumpkin
* LIK-M-AID® Fun Dip
* MAGGI® Seasonings
* MIGHTY DOG® dog food
* MILO® powdered beverage & ready-to-drink
* MINOR’S®
* MODULEN® IBD
* MOIST & MEATY®
* NAN® Infant Formula
* NERDS®
* NESCAFE®
* NESCAFE® Cafe© con Leche
* NESCAFE® CLASICO (soluble coffees from Mexico)
* NESQUIK®
* NESTEA®
* Nestle© Healthcare Nutrition
* NESTLE® JUICY JUICE® 100% fruit juices
* Nestle© FoodServices
* NESTLE® ABUELITA®
* NESTLE® CARNATION® INSTANT BREAKFAST®
* NESTLE® CARNATION® Malted Milk
* NESTLE® CARNATION® Milks
* NESTLE® CRUNCH®
* NESTLE® dessert toppings
* NESTLE® European Style Desserts
* NESTLE® Hot Cocoa Mix
* NESTLE® Infant Formulas
* NESTLE® MIlk Chocolate
* NESTLE® NIDO®
* NESTLE® SIGNATURES TREASURES®
* NESTLE® SIGNATURES TURTLES®
* NESTLE® TOLL HOUSE® Candy Bars
* NESTLE® TOLL HOUSE® Morsels & baking ingredients
* NIPS®
* NUTREN®
* NUTREN® GLYTROL®
* NUTREN® PULMONARY (formerly NUTRIVENT®)
* NUTREN® RENAL (formerly NUTRIRENAL)
* NUTREN® REPLETE®
* NUTRIHEAL
* NUTRIHEP®
* OH HENRY!®
* OOMPAS®
* ORTEGA®
* PEPTAMEN®
* PERUGINA® Confections
* PIXY STIX®
* POWERBAR®
* PRIA®
* PRO PLAN® dog and cat foods
* PURINA ONE®
* PURINA®
* PURINA® ESSENTIALS cat treats and dog treats
* QUALITY STREET®
* RAISINETS®
* RENALCAL®
* RUNTS®
* secondnature®
* SNO-CAPS®
* SPREE®
* STOUFFER’S®
* SWEETARTS®
* T BONZ®
* TART ‘N TINYS®
* TASTER’S CHOICE® instant coffee
* TENDER VITTLES®
* TIDY CATS®
* TRIO®
* VETERINARY DIETS
* WHISKER LICKIN’S®
* WONKA® products
* YESTERDAY’S NEWS®

http://crunchydomesticgoddess.com/2007/05/19/the-great-nestle-boycott/

[REP]

16. For women without access to potable water, this has always made sense

The formula dumping on undeveloped countries is infuriating - I'm a long-time Nestlé boycotter. But there has been something in the air with with HipMamas and other things; an undercurrent, a backlash of sorts that seems to be telling women - working women especially - that if they don't (or can't) nurse, they're not real women, they're bad mothers, hurting their babies, unnatural (and of course I mean women in industrialized countries, like the US). As distasteful as those who act offended by a woman nursing a baby, there's something almost as distasteful about the militancy of some of the "lactivists" that has nothing to do with boob exposure. This essay came close to articulating some of those feelings that have been nagging at me.

[Catherina]

18. I understand better now

I think I missed a lot since I couldn't read the whole article. I agree with what you wrote. The militancy, any militancy really, disturbs me.

The corporation where I worked had nursing rooms for mothers coming back from a generous maternity leave + FMLA after months so they could continue nursing their babies but the company was doing well and it's employees were mostly White, graduate-school degree types with solid scientific skills. It was a wonderful thing to see new mothers bring their babies to work, or even without the babies, go to the nursing room to pump out their milk for later.

Lovely. But what low-income woman working in a fast-food chain, a factory, or driving busses for a living has such a fabulous employee *perk*? This is where I go full circle and become downright old-fashioned. There's no acceptable reason that it takes 2 salaries to keep a household afloat and then forces a lot of woman to view formula as a *necessity* instead of a choice.

Those militants need to confront the root cause (economics) before getting so judgmental.

[gkhouston]

20. One of the first things you learn as a parent is that no matter what choices you make

someone will be sure to tell you you're doing it wrong. And that actually begins long before you give birth.

Actually, since I primarily worked with men when I was nursing, I got a small serving of the opposite attitude. I think some of them got squicked out by the idea, which I found amusing. I wonder what would have happened if I'd told them that breast pumps use tampons as filters?

[Catherina]

25. Haha. Really?

Did you make that up just to toy with them or is that true?

Either way, it's funny imagining their reaction

[gkhouston]

26. Re-read the post: "I wonder what *would* have happened."

I didn't actually say that, although it crossed my mind a time or two.

[Adriennecliona]

27. What about the babies

None other than the great Abraham Maslow first identified women who find it easy to breastfeed and women who cease their attempts quickly recognizing stress, anxiety, or an inability to meet their infant's food demands, raise children who are psychologically secure in their relationships with others.

Women who have a difficult time breastfeeding, but preserve in the face of anxiety, stress, and perhaps insufficient food supplies raise babies with an inhibited sense of security.

If you are a mother who finds it easy to breastfeed wonderful, if you are a breastfeeding challenged mother know your infant may model her world as anxiety filled, replicating her earliest experiences. If you sense your child is not satiated, she may link hunger to an unsatisfiable need. Obesity may be linked not to a lack of breastfeeding, but a linking for infants between the hunger cue and an inability to be satisfied.

Liquid gold and emerging psychological patterns are not unrelated. Thus each mother must enjoy reflecting on her own experience of breastfeeding and choose both physical and psychological health for her baby.

The United States Breastfeeding Committee does not have an American Psychological Association advisor on the board. The psychological perspective of breastfeeding attempts is not represented in the most powerful breastfeeding advocacy group in the US.

[REP]

29. Hi, Neighbor!

I read your essay and I see we're in the same area (I'm in Mountain View right now!).

You raise some excellent points. I hope you could access the essay in Harper's or can read it somewhere; it isn't anti-breast feeding by any means, but it does raise many of the same issues, such as equating bottle-feeding with smoking, guilting, etc.