Breastfeeding Myths Perpetuated by Culture, Society and
the Health Care System
Jack Newman,
MD
Reported by Kathy Kerr
Arlington, Virginia, USA
From: LEAVEN, Vol. 35 No. 5, October-November 1999, p. 107
Jack Newman's humor, experience
and point of view made him one of the most popular speakers at the Conference.
Here are some of the points he brought up at the Luncheon session on
July 4.
We all know that breastfeeding
is wonderful. So why is it so difficult to convince other people?
In the United States and
Canada, bottle-feeding is the norm. We are a bottle-feeding culture.
We begin teaching our children at a young age. Dolls come with baby
bottles. Most children's books show babies with bottles. The idea is
perpetuated that animals breastfeed and humans do not. Dr. Newman showed
slides of Canadian children raised in families where breastfeeding is
the norm. Little boys and girls nursed their dolls. An Australian aboriginal
child was shown wearing a strap with clay breasts to breastfeed her
doll.
For many mothers, breastfeeding
information comes from formula manufacturers. Breastfeeding mothers
pictured in the pamphlets are usually plain with dark hair and appear
to be depressed. Bottle-feeding mothers are blond, prettier, happier
and the photographs are brighter.
Many mothers are fearful
of nursing in public. A breastfeeding pamphlet picturing both breasts
exposed gives a subliminal message that breastfeeding mothers must be
immodest, making bottle- feeding mothers appear somehow more virtuous.
Professional, medical and
pharmaceutical companies use baby bottles in advertising to represent
babies. In Norway, where breastfeeding rates are among the highest in
the world, a baby at the breast was used in an advertisement with the
caption "only one food is better for you than sardines."
Many mothers fear that they
will not be able to breastfeed because there is something wrong with
their nipples or breasts. They believe their nipples must be as clean
and tough as bottle nipples. If a mother has flat nipples, how could
she breastfeed? But what woman has nipples that look like any of the
artificial nipples on the market? A mother may offer her baby a squeezed
breast to try to make it look more like a bottle. A mother with a breast
infection is frequently advised not to breastfeed because no one would
use milk from a container known to be infected.
Scientific studies, data
and progress impress us. At the end of the 19th century advertisers
stressed that the baby's intake could be accurately measured with a
bottle. Today formula companies emphasize the constant refinement of
their products. This is progress. They use scientific language and graphs
to demonstrate how similar their products are to human milk.
Our society simply does not
know what a truly normal baby is like. Babies are breastfed in the context
of bottles and formula. It is assumed that mothers do not have enough
milk for the first two or three days. In the past it was shown that
formula intake was a shock to the baby's system so it was recommended
that the baby have nothing, or perhaps just water, for the first 24
hours. Since formula always looks the same, it is assumed that thin,
yellowish colostrum must not be important and that there is a need to
get to the "good milk" as soon as possible. Many health care
practitioners have no idea how long a baby should stay at the breast
or how often to feed the baby. If it takes a baby 10-15 minutes to take
a bottle, that should be long enough at the breast. Currently there
are many health care practitioners who do not believe in "nipple
confusion."
Health care professionals
may be looking more at growth charts than at the babies they care for.
A breastfed baby may lose weight at first or may not have regained his
birth weight by 10 days, but it's much more important to assess that
the baby is eating well.
Many breastfed babies become
jaundiced. If the baby is gaining well, the jaundice is probably normal.
In fact it may be that bottle-feeding mothers should be advised that
their babies' bilirubin levels are too low!
Our culture values the concept
of being civilized. Civilized upper class women do not breastfeed because
they are not as close to nature as women in developing countries. And
babies need to be civilized as well.
Many parents feel most comfortable
with schedules and avoiding such practices as comforting the baby and
nursing the baby to sleep.
As a breastfeeding mother
in a bottle-feeding culture, it was fascinating for me to learn from
Dr. Newman how the beliefs of our society have been shaped. Our values
include modesty, science, progress and civilization and these have a
profound impact on breastfeeding in our culture.
Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:32:22 UTC 2007.
