Anna T - Another Ridiculous Breastfeeding/Laziness post

[Rachel333]

Excuse me, but that (the bolded part) is a very strong statement. Do you have any documentation for it?

Basically it's just that they make breastmilk seem like this miracle elixir. I've seen claims that it reduces the risk for pretty much every disease you can think of, and that's just not true. A friend's mom felt guilty for years because she thought that her daughter had eczema because she didn't breastfeed, which was a common claim that has been proven false.

As long as you have access to clean water and modern medical care, the health differences between breastfed and formula-fed babies are small. I haven't read up on this stuff in quite a while, since my kids are way past breastfeeding age, but I have never heard of any studies showing formula to be healthier than breastmilk. Again, documentation would be nice.

Some scientists think that toxins in breast milk due to environmental issues like pollution can be harmful to the baby. This took me forever to find and I was about to give up, but there was a study suggesting that breastfed boys have higher incidences of testicular cancer and other reproductive issues. Here are two articles talking about the study (and I apologize for linking to the Daily Mail): http://trueslant.com/katiedrummond/2009 ... ar-cancer/ and http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... ancer.html

[tankgirl]

First the Dad not able to hold the baby while she does the dishes is just stupid. Unless she is just looking for excuses not to do the dishes.

On the "poor Mother", I should explain, often times first it is culture, second ease, third advertising and experience. Many of the Wic offices here do lip service to breast feeding, they have a few posters, can rent pumps, but a huge percentage of the Mother's through those offices get formula checks. The cultures are white, Hispanic and African American mostly in my area, you almost never see lower income whites, or African Americans nurse here, even very few Hispanics do, most believe it's gross, sexual, pervy, dirty, painful, or just plain wrong. There are also lots of myths about too small of breasts or too large of breasts, you have a B cup, can't nurse, you have a D cup you can't nurse. This is when these woman are barely pregnant, family and friends will tell them this. They are also told from the begining of pregnancy, if you are low income we have free formula, so why not, I mean it's free. You can have anyone feed your kid, so you can work which might be very important to help your family. The advertising is strong. You can get so much free stuff from the formula companies, just by going to the doctors, heck to buy something from Motherhood they all but accost you to get you on their mailing lists. Again if you are low income why wouldn't you store up a few free cans of formula, just in case?? And experience, since so many of them lack personal expperience seeing nursing, if something goes wrong, they might find it harder to find help. Some places have free help, but sometimes, the same counslers have never breast fed or have limited experience themselves. Some one with funds could go hire a consultate, who might be more knowledgeable, who can better prepare them.

It seems like often times it is the middle class that tries hard to breastfed, because formula costs are high, and they would pay out of pocket. These Moms also tend to have more time to read, prepare and have a back up plan. Most of the women I know in this catagory, do try breastfeeding first.

Older generations still look down at breastfeeding as "poor", because back in the day only well to do woman could afford to not breastfeed. Now, it is a luxury to stay home with your kids, and to breastfeed. If you have to work. more people expect you to use formula then breastfeeding, since some don't really even think about pumps.

BTW I hated the pump so much, I had a weird reaction to it, it made my hormones do weird things we think. But if I had to full time pump I would have gone to formula. For women who can pump, bless you cause I hated that damn thing.

[Rachel333]

Also, I've mentioned this before, but I did an internship in a clinic in southern Africa where they have some of the highest HIV rates in the world. They have excellent government programs and the maternal transmission rate is nearly 0, but they have a problem with HIV+ women breastfeeding their babies because there is a stigma attached to not breastfeeding. The water is perfectly safe there (I was initially nervous, but I drank it straight out of the tap and never got sick) and the women know better, but it still happens. That's one fairly obvious case where breastfeeding is not better.

[PennySycamore]

Rachel333,

The World Health Organization currently recommends exclusive breastfeeding for infants born to HIV+ mothers for the first 6 months. The highest transmission perinatal HIV transmission rates are seen among infants who are mixed fed (both breastfed and formula fed). Yes, HIV is present in human milk, but there are properties in human milk which help protect the infant if breastfeeding is exclusive. In some communities in Africa, bottle-feeding may be seen as an admission that the mom is HIV+ which can have negative repercussions to the woman.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control still recommend that HIV+ women not breastfeed and formula feed their infants instead. Formula feeding in developed countries is relatively safe and there is zero chance of HIV transmission through the artificial milk itself. It's a complex issue with no easy answers.

[snarkbillie]

I never woke for the p.m. feedings. Daddy would change her, latch her on, support her while she drained the tanks, and then they would have their playtime. After I went back to work and was pumping, Dad would do the evening feeding, while I took a nap.

Same. He took the 10pm to 4am shift and I did 4am until he got home at night. I never woke up during the night to feed/change, he changed them, latched them on, burped them, etc.

[Rosa]

Militant formula feeding moms? Where are these women? They sure as hell don't live near me.

There may not be any, but there are

*not enough maternity leave for many women to establish good supply before they have to go to at least part-time pumping

*child care centers that won't handle breastmilk

*workplaces where you can't leave breastmilk in the fridge or freezer (including one I have worked in - someone complained about the "biohazard" so nursing moms were supposed to have enough ice packs in their bags to chill the milk through the rest of a shift - and some of us worked 10 and 12 hour shifts)

*many workplaces that don't give adequate breaks

*women and men who will tell you not to breastfeed at their house/at the mall/at a restaurant/at a wedding (that's the one I experienced - they tried to make me go to the bathroom rather than the entirely empty room I went into to nurse.)

*nurses and doctors who don't mention that milk might not come in for a few days, and that's normal - along with the nurse in NICU who decided to "let me sleep" even though I'd asked to be waked for every feeding, and gave my preemie formula against the orders on his chart.

Along with a whole chorus of people whose first response to finding out I was planning on nursing that I should remember formula is JUST FINE and don't let those boob nazis get to me.

Oh and at least one doctor who told a relative my age that she should stop nursing because her baby had jaundice. Which is so basically wrong she could have refuted it from What to Expect, except she trusted him.

It REALLY SUCKS that instead of having public health & workplace rules that support every mom's choices, we are having PR campaigns that just make women who don't/can't breastfeed feel bad. That doesn't mean the "breast is best" voice is winning, or even very strong in a lot of social groups. I live in a working-class neighborhood and sometimes when I was in the park with my infant, I'd be approached by young moms who had never known anyone who nursed, who asked a ton of questions (does it hurt, does he like it, can you drink, won't it make the baby small) because they'd gotten perfunctory "breast is best!" but no actual education or support around it.

[Rachel333]

The World Health Organization currently recommends exclusive breastfeeding for infants born to HIV+ mothers for the first 6 months.

I agree with your post, but the WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding if exclusive formula feeding isn't possible (for a variety of reasons). Otherwise there is no doubt that formula is better.

Stigma against HIV is a huge problem, and the doctors and nurses should probably be more sympathetic to the women who can't deal with it, but it's just such a huge problem (about 1 in 5 people are HIV+ in that country) and no one wants to see babies get HIV when they didn't have to.

[ilovetchotchkes]

Her "my experiences must be shared by everyone else" mentality is certainly annoying....but it's also really common if you've ever spent time on mommy boards.

My pet peeve involves women who say things like "childbirth is easy and natural as long as you don't have negative thoughts. Look at how I had 4 kids unassisted!"

That's what got me into trouble with my son's birth. I bought into that mindset hook, line and singer. I almost ended up with an emergency c-section because I wasn't prepared for the thought of ANY interventions. Luckily, i had a hospital midwife with a level head, and a LOT of patience and I ended up with a vaginal, but not natural birth. Once I was pushing the reason for all of my issues was VERY evident. Not all of the "visualization" or "positive" thoughts in the WORLD would have helped. My son's head was cocked to the side. Ear to his shoulder. Stubborn little booger! (and he remains so to this day!)

[StarrieEyedKat]

Imagine that it takes 20 minutes (made up number :) to feed a wee 10 week baby who is nursing.

Now imagine that you're taking 25 minutes to pump (that assumes 5 minutes to set up and do all the pumping--realistically it takes a little longer to pump than to nurse and if I could fill my baby's tummy with 5 nursing-sessions per day, because pumping = less efficient, it would take 6-7 pumps to get that much milk) and 20 minutes to feed the wee baby (IME, babies eat at close to the same rate, regardless of how they're fed--at least the experts claim they're supposed to) plus 10 minutes to deal with washing things up and preparing the bottle. It's now taken almost an hour to do that same feeding, you get to repeat that in 2 hours.

OMG, so much word. My first couldn't latch. I think I had every lactation consultant in a 50 mile radius try to help us, but he simply could not latch onto my breast. So I pumped and bottle fed. That was the worst two months of my life. You're not kidding, it was:

change baby and get him settled - hope he doesn't start crying while I'm pumping

set up "pumping station" and make sure I had towels, water, etc. nearby

pump for 20 minutes or so while feeling like a cow (I was lucky, I had a double pump, but the image of what it did will never leave my brain)

remove pumps from breasts (messier and more painful than you might think)

wipe up, get dressed

store excess milk

get bottle ready, feed baby

Then do it all again in 2 hours because breastfed babies get hungrier faster than formula fed ones. Add onto that crippling exhaustion (I've never been as mind-numbingly tired as when I'm breastfeeding) and severe afterpains that are made worse by pumping/breastfeeding. I got a really bad breast infection about two months in and my milk supply completely dried up after that, I felt so guilty but SO relieved to go to formula.

[ilovetchotchkes]

OMG, so much word. My first couldn't latch. I think I had every lactation consultant in a 50 mile radius try to help us, but he simply could not latch onto my breast. So I pumped and bottle fed. That was the worst two months of my life. You're not kidding, it was:

change baby and get him settled - hope he doesn't start crying while I'm pumping

set up "pumping station" and make sure I had towels, water, etc. nearby

pump for 20 minutes or so while feeling like a cow (I was lucky, I had a double pump, but the image of what it did will never leave my brain)

remove pumps from breasts (messier and more painful than you might think)

wipe up, get dressed

store excess milk

get bottle ready, feed baby

Then do it all again in 2 hours because breastfed babies get hungrier faster than formula fed ones. Add onto that crippling exhaustion (I've never been as mind-numbingly tired as when I'm breastfeeding) and severe afterpains that are made worse by pumping/breastfeeding. I got a really bad breast infection about two months in and my milk supply completely dried up after that, I felt so guilty but SO relieved to go to formula.

I only pumped to get extra because I was always engorged in the mornings and literally could not STAND to not pump. Despite the feeling of relief when my breasts were drained, I loathed pumping. So much so, that when my sister suggested I wean my child off the breast and start exclusively pumping I almost punched her. I don't know how ANYONE exclusively pumps.

[Katiebug]

I'm a working mom who returned to work when our baby was 10 weeks old. She was exclusively breastfed until we introduced solids at 6 months, and she continues to breastfeed today at 16 months. We had some challenges in the first month or so but it was very much worth it to have worked through those issues. Hell, I got mastitis when I pump weaned a week before Little Bug's first birthday - difficulties are not always limited to the early days! I never thought I'd be nursing past 1 year but once we got there it felt natural and right to continue. Right now my plan is to let her nurse until she decides she's ready to be done.

One of the reasons I kept breastfeeding was sheer laziness. :lol: I never had to mix and warm a bottle at 2 AM - I just went into the nursery, picked up the baby, and latched her on.

There pro-formula people out there. I can't for the life of me understand how they rationalize it in their own minds, but they exist. Don't even get me started on the folks who equate breastfeeding with defecating, or who think it's sexual.

If a mom chooses not to breastfeed or has a medical contraindication, then I respect her situation and I don't judge another mother for formula feeding as long as she doesn't judge me for breastfeeding. Thankfully we live in a time and place where formula is safe and nutritious for those who can't or don't breastfeed or who need to supplement. I do think that more mothers could meet their own breastfeeding goals if given proper support from the medical community and from society at large; it is a shame when a woman wants to nurse but is sabotaged or derailed or can't get the help that she needs to continue. I'll continue to be a breastfeeding advocate for that reason - not to make women feel bad, but to support women who DO want to nurse and need some help to meet their own goals, whether it's to nurse for a week, a month, or a year.