The Battle Between the Boob and the Bottle
This week, the US made headlines when the WHO released its guidelines regarding the promotion of breastfeeding and formula when some countries announced that they were "bullied" and threatened with economic and military sanctions if they did not support the US position.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/stevens/ct-life-stevens-wednesday-breastfeeding-resolution-0711-story.html
As someone who both breast and formula fed; I see this debate all the time. In this country, we perceive breastfeeding unlike almost anywhere else in the world. Of the richest nations, the US is in the bottom 3 among breastfeeding rates. It is a more polarizing topic among women than almost anything else. Feed in public? Shamed because how dare you show a boob. Feed in private? Shamed because it's your right to feed your baby where you want to. Formula feed? How DARE you not want to do what is best for your child. Do you want them to have chronic illness? Because that's what formula babies have. (Insert eye roll here). I have seen women almost come to blows over boob versus bottle.
With my first child, my daughter, I wanted to exclusively breastfeed. Breastfeeding rates are very low in the Black community (I will address that later....), so I had to figure it out on my own. Not having a mother or any other females around me who had nursed their babies, I did as much research as I could. I read books, went to a couple of meetings and prepared myself as best as I could. No amount of research will EVER prepare you for how HARD breastfeeding really is. My nipples cracked and bled and I was in excruciating pain. I would cry at the thought of feeding my child. I got engorged and would have to stand over the sink in the bathroom just to relieve the milk pressure. The lactation consultants told me to push through the pain, that breast milk was best, and scared the crap out of me for even THINKING of using formula. Then I talked to my mom. She put it into perspective for me. How did I manage to graduate high school and make it into 2 Ivy League schools if I was lacking in intelligence somehow? I wasn't a sickly child that had all sorts of maladies. I have an above average IQ. So I supplemented with formula. I went into the birth of my second child with that same mindset. I breast and formula fed from day one. I still believe that breast milk offers benefits that formula will never be able to duplicate because it's made by women and it's magical. However, NO mother should EVER be shamed for her choice of formula feeding over breastfeeding. Some moms physically cannot breast feed, some just don't want to. And that's ok.
African American/Black women have one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding among women in this country. There are a myriad of reasons for that and they all make "sense". More Black women have to go back into the workforce sooner and they perceive that it's easier to formula feed rather than pump and breastfeed. Many Black women come from households where their mothers didn't breastfeed, so it's not even a topic that is brought up. I know that my mom didn't nurse any of her children and went back to work when we were all infants; so for me to breastfeed was something she had no experience with. I was on WIC when I was pregnant with both of my children, and formula was easily obtained, and the WIC program DOES promote breastfeeding, but in my case, not like it should have. Many Black women work in environments where breastfeeding is not promoted, so leaving your job to pump milk becomes a hassle or they are given grief for even trying. The "embarrassment" of breastfeeding in public, because in the Black community; you just don't see that very often. The "old wives tales" from so many of our grandmothers promoting "big babies" and putting "cereal in bottles" early on so babies will sleep later. And there is a generational and historical stigma as well. When slaves were brought over from Africa, food was scarce. Biologically, a nursing mother will continue to produce milk indefinitely as long as she doesn't let her milk supply dry up. Therefore, even if a woman had a baby that died, food was oftentimes given to her by the other slaves in order to maintain her ability to produce milk, and then that woman would feed all of the slaves, young and old. There is a lot of documented evidence of slave women having their babies taken away from them and being "wet nurses" for their master's children, because nursing was perceived to be something only "lower class" women did. The lady of the house was not going to whip her boob out for a baby, but it was ok for a slave to do so. As slavery ended and more and more Black women found work outside the home in various areas, homemade formula and milk was used. The rise of the Civil Rights movement and the end of segregation marked a huge drop in breastfeeding and Black mothers never really embraced breastfeeding as much as their White counterparts after that.
In many countries, there are issues with contaminated water and a lack of food. For nursing moms, malnutrition causes low milk production. Babies starve. You get "failure to thrive". I have seen some moms so hell bent on breastfeeding that they don't see the signs that their babies are literally starving to death. On the flip side, contaminated water mixed with formula causes babies to get sick and die. I've seen moms not given the education they need and due to lack of money; mix the formula the wrong way. I've seen concentrate not watered down and fed straight. I've seen moms skimp on the powder because they can't afford another can so they want to stretch it out as long as they can. That can harm baby too.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/07/the-epic-battle-between-breast-milk-and-infant-formula-companies/564782/
An International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes was adopted by the World Health Organization in 1981, requiring infant formula to meet strict quality standards and calling on formula companies to stop marketing practices that undermine breastfeeding. The vote was 118 to 1. The lone dissenter? The US.
The WHO isn't the bad guy here. They don't want to ban formula. They promote the health and safety of babies. But they also want education and to prevent a one sided view and aggressive marketing in places where formula may always not be the best choice.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/09/health/breastfeeding-resolution-explainer/index.html
Ultimately, FED IS BEST. As long as your baby has adequate nutrition, I'm not here to judge anyone for how they feed their child.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/stevens/ct-life-stevens-wednesday-breastfeeding-resolution-0711-story.html
As someone who both breast and formula fed; I see this debate all the time. In this country, we perceive breastfeeding unlike almost anywhere else in the world. Of the richest nations, the US is in the bottom 3 among breastfeeding rates. It is a more polarizing topic among women than almost anything else. Feed in public? Shamed because how dare you show a boob. Feed in private? Shamed because it's your right to feed your baby where you want to. Formula feed? How DARE you not want to do what is best for your child. Do you want them to have chronic illness? Because that's what formula babies have. (Insert eye roll here). I have seen women almost come to blows over boob versus bottle.
With my first child, my daughter, I wanted to exclusively breastfeed. Breastfeeding rates are very low in the Black community (I will address that later....), so I had to figure it out on my own. Not having a mother or any other females around me who had nursed their babies, I did as much research as I could. I read books, went to a couple of meetings and prepared myself as best as I could. No amount of research will EVER prepare you for how HARD breastfeeding really is. My nipples cracked and bled and I was in excruciating pain. I would cry at the thought of feeding my child. I got engorged and would have to stand over the sink in the bathroom just to relieve the milk pressure. The lactation consultants told me to push through the pain, that breast milk was best, and scared the crap out of me for even THINKING of using formula. Then I talked to my mom. She put it into perspective for me. How did I manage to graduate high school and make it into 2 Ivy League schools if I was lacking in intelligence somehow? I wasn't a sickly child that had all sorts of maladies. I have an above average IQ. So I supplemented with formula. I went into the birth of my second child with that same mindset. I breast and formula fed from day one. I still believe that breast milk offers benefits that formula will never be able to duplicate because it's made by women and it's magical. However, NO mother should EVER be shamed for her choice of formula feeding over breastfeeding. Some moms physically cannot breast feed, some just don't want to. And that's ok.
African American/Black women have one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding among women in this country. There are a myriad of reasons for that and they all make "sense". More Black women have to go back into the workforce sooner and they perceive that it's easier to formula feed rather than pump and breastfeed. Many Black women come from households where their mothers didn't breastfeed, so it's not even a topic that is brought up. I know that my mom didn't nurse any of her children and went back to work when we were all infants; so for me to breastfeed was something she had no experience with. I was on WIC when I was pregnant with both of my children, and formula was easily obtained, and the WIC program DOES promote breastfeeding, but in my case, not like it should have. Many Black women work in environments where breastfeeding is not promoted, so leaving your job to pump milk becomes a hassle or they are given grief for even trying. The "embarrassment" of breastfeeding in public, because in the Black community; you just don't see that very often. The "old wives tales" from so many of our grandmothers promoting "big babies" and putting "cereal in bottles" early on so babies will sleep later. And there is a generational and historical stigma as well. When slaves were brought over from Africa, food was scarce. Biologically, a nursing mother will continue to produce milk indefinitely as long as she doesn't let her milk supply dry up. Therefore, even if a woman had a baby that died, food was oftentimes given to her by the other slaves in order to maintain her ability to produce milk, and then that woman would feed all of the slaves, young and old. There is a lot of documented evidence of slave women having their babies taken away from them and being "wet nurses" for their master's children, because nursing was perceived to be something only "lower class" women did. The lady of the house was not going to whip her boob out for a baby, but it was ok for a slave to do so. As slavery ended and more and more Black women found work outside the home in various areas, homemade formula and milk was used. The rise of the Civil Rights movement and the end of segregation marked a huge drop in breastfeeding and Black mothers never really embraced breastfeeding as much as their White counterparts after that.
In many countries, there are issues with contaminated water and a lack of food. For nursing moms, malnutrition causes low milk production. Babies starve. You get "failure to thrive". I have seen some moms so hell bent on breastfeeding that they don't see the signs that their babies are literally starving to death. On the flip side, contaminated water mixed with formula causes babies to get sick and die. I've seen moms not given the education they need and due to lack of money; mix the formula the wrong way. I've seen concentrate not watered down and fed straight. I've seen moms skimp on the powder because they can't afford another can so they want to stretch it out as long as they can. That can harm baby too.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/07/the-epic-battle-between-breast-milk-and-infant-formula-companies/564782/
An International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes was adopted by the World Health Organization in 1981, requiring infant formula to meet strict quality standards and calling on formula companies to stop marketing practices that undermine breastfeeding. The vote was 118 to 1. The lone dissenter? The US.
The WHO isn't the bad guy here. They don't want to ban formula. They promote the health and safety of babies. But they also want education and to prevent a one sided view and aggressive marketing in places where formula may always not be the best choice.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/09/health/breastfeeding-resolution-explainer/index.html
Ultimately, FED IS BEST. As long as your baby has adequate nutrition, I'm not here to judge anyone for how they feed their child.
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