Masochistic Mommy

Parents and physicians alike are torn on the issue of how, and indeed if, hospital interventions have a detrimental impact upon maternal and child welfare. Medical procedures, for instance, labor inductions, epidurals and circumcisions, as well as the introduction of man-made devices such as nipple shields and bottles of formula, have all been linked to breastfeeding failure. They certainly didn’t help this week’s mom, Rebecca, on her quest for success. Indeed, opposers of home births would be wise to read the following story. Whilst it certainly does not reflect all cases, Rebecca’s story illustrates how the hospital environment and its inhabitants, often work together to undermine a mother’s breastfeeding efforts. “I'm lucky that in my circle of friends and acquaintances, there are dozens of mothers who have nursed their babies.  When I was pregnant, I'd see my friends nursing their babies, and I assumed that of course I would breastfeed, that's just what people do!  I wa...

If I were given the opportunity to speak to formula industry representatives, this is what I would say... It seems to me that your choices are clear, if not particularly palatable: You could continue operating under your own special brand of denial, dragging your corporate feet for, at most, the next 15 to 20 years while doing your best to slow the slide in sales of your myriad infant-formula products, which are intended for routine nonemergency use, by seeking to subvert the switch to more and longer breastfeeding (indeed, given the principles traditionally governing profit-making, this is what you’d be expected to do); or you could defy tradition by preparing for changed consumer behavior resulting from increasing society-wide awareness of breastfeeding’s essential nurturing and nutritional role. Or... You could demonstrate yet again that you’re really not interested in what breastfeeding proponents have to say, only in working as close as possible to the margins of enforced regulati...

Oreo is known for hijacking the issue of infant feeding for marketing purposes (remember their breastfeeding ad ?) So now that Kate has dispelled the new heir to the British throne, Oreo thought they'd have another bash at the topic. However, this time the assumption is that the new prince will be bottle-fed (a bizarre assumption considering the royal family's track record of breastfeeding). Featuring a milk bottle and Oreo cookie atop a stately cushion, the timely campaign was tweeted out with the message 'Prepare the royal bottle service!' as soon as the news of the baby's birth broke. Then there is this 'subtle' affair from tea company Twinings: Notice it's a wee newborn-sized bottle! No shame. Perhaps they should have just gone the whole way and f illed the ruddy thing with tea!  It's a mere step from nutritionally-inferior powdered cow's milk. The influx of royal baby bottle ads is a stark reminder (if we ever needed another one) that our cu...

Most women notice a difference between their breasts when it comes to the flow of milk, volume of milk pumped and size. This is normal; no two sides of a person's body are exactly the same. However sometimes, a baby’s preference can lead to nursing from one side only, leaving the neglected breast to dry up and shrink in size. Many factors can lead to baby making this decision: differences in nipple shape, breast surgery, even differences in the taste of breast milk. And it doesn’t necessarily need to be an issue with mom’s breasts. In the story you are about to read, baby experienced birth trauma which made it excruciately painful for her to nurse on one of her mother’s breasts. Yet, as her story illustrates, it is perfectly feasible to breastfeed from just one breast. Baby will still receive all the nourishment they need, although mom may need to deal with a few inconvenient anomalies, for instance, the illustrious ‘Crooked Chachas’. “When I got pregnant with my daughter I knew I ...

If I were in a position to speak to the world’s governments, this is what I would say: As guarantors of the welfare of your citizens, you of course will want to move beyond reciting pious breast-is-best slogans and adopting, through your international organizations, still more resolutions, declarations, strategies and plans of action that essentially reiterate what has already been said over and over for the last 30 years. You of course will want to concentrate your energy and resources on implementing, systematically and fully, those remarkably sound and comprehensive consensus instruments that are already on the table (the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding , for example). And as you know, the scientific and epidemiological evidence on which these instruments are so firmly based is both unassailable and expanding daily. The welfare of your citizens is at this price, and the health of your economies depends on it much more than you probably know. Just ask your heal...

A baby's refusal to breastfeed is an example of oral aversion. Distressing for mother and baby alike, La leche League describe an aversion as "a tendency to avoid a thing or situation and especially a usually pleasurable one because it is or has been associated with a noxious stimulation." In the breastfed baby, this behaviour can range from a mild disruption of normal feeding patterns, to complete refusal of the breast. Often it is caused by manhandling the newborn during those important moments and hours of life when they are trying to learn the art of nursing. This is exactly what happened with Cagney, who found herself mourning more than just the loss of her planned-for home birth. Cagney's breastfeeding relationship was mercilessly whipped from her by the unforgiving hands of a thoughtless lactation consultant and bureaucratic nicu staff. You are about to learn how she recovered her breast milk – and her dignity – whilst curing her daughter's oral aversion, a...

I have enormous respect for your knowledge, training and hard-won experience, but I have zero understanding or tolerance for any fence-sitting you may still be engaging in concerning breast milk and breastfeeding. If you have a cultural blind spot or two to overcome, that’s fine; go ahead and do it. After all, your health degree doesn’t make you any less a product of the larger society and culture in which you were born, came of age and were educated. But do you really think you have a valid excuse for not coming down routinely on Mother Nature’s side? If so, I wonder what it might be. It seems to me that the abundant, readily available, and overwhelmingly clear and convincing scientific and epidemiological evidence speaks for itself – and certainly a lot louder than I can. As a group you are seen as authorities on every aspect of maternal and child care and nutrition; thus you are in a unique position to influence the organization and functioning of health services for mothers before,...

In the UK there is a postpartum surveillance culture. Throughout their offspring’s early childhood, each mother (it is invariably mothers, fathers fall under the radar) is policed by a team of health professionals who are employed to monitor the adequacy of her parenting. The first year of parenthood is arguably the most scrutinised. An army of midwives and health visitors weigh and measure the child, carrying out various intellectual and physical tests and other ‘risk-assessment measures’. All of this is concealed under the guise of ‘supporting mothers’. However, as you are about to read, far from being supportive, the postpartum surveillance culture is hostile and mistrusting, particularly of breastfeeding. The following story perfectly illustrates the tragedy of this government-sanctioned invasion of privacy. “In May 2010 my son was born, 3 weeks late due to incompetent staff at my NHS hospital. I informed them several times they had my dates wrong due to when I got my positive pre...