happy world breastfeeding week!

ok, today is the last day of world breastfeeding week (august 1-7th), and i've got something to say. and don't stop reading this post because the thought of (or just the word) breastfeeding embarrasses you. breastfeeding is a social justice issue. if you care about the poor, you should care about breastfeeding.

...so this is a screen shot of the most emailed yahoo news stories as of some time on friday 8/4...i thought it was interesting that two of the headlines had to do with breastfeeding, and they seemed to be contradictory from just reading the titles.

the first one refers to this article. some folks got really flustered when the parenting magazine Baby Talk published on its cover a photo of an infant nursing on a very prominent boob. apparently, some people find the image of a nursing boob offensive, even if no part of the nipple is even exposed. the article quoted a survey in which more than half the people polled are opposed to women breastfeeding in public.

this is sad, folks, that the majority of our public would prefer to not be exposed to what they perceive as such a shameful thing as a nursing mom and her infant. it's sad because i am convinced that this is a result of ignorance regarding the important benefits of breastfeeding, an ignorance happily perpetuated by infant formula companies who shell out tons of money to hospitals that pass out free diaper bags (full of cans of formula and coupons for formula) to expecting and new moms. what's even more sad (and thoroughly maddening!) is that this in clear violation of the World Health Organization's International Code of Marketing Breast-milk Subsitutes which states:

"Manufacturers and distributors should not provide, directly or indirectly, to pregnant women, mothers or members of their families, samples of products within the scope of this Code." ~Paragraph 5.2 (page 10)

what's even sadder? this is the 25th anniversary of the WHO's code, and the U.S. isn't even CLOSE to enforcing it. i know i got my free diaper bag from Enfamil (owned by Bristol-Myers Squibb) on my very first OB-GYN visit, and i got even more when i left the hospital after cadence was born.

such unethical marketing of formula can be devastating to infants in developing countries for a number of reasons:

• "When newborn babies are given bottles, they are less able to suckle at the breast. This can lead to breastfeeding failure. The baby is then dependent on commercial formula milks.
  
• When mother and baby return home, the milk is no longer free. At home parents are forced to buy more milk, which in some countries can cost more than 50% of the family income.
  
• The expense of baby milks affects all members of the family, as less money is available to feed other family members.
  
• Because formulas are so expensive, they may be overdiluted or the baby may not receive enough food, leading to malnutrition.
  
• In developing countries, a bottle-fed child is up to 25 times more likely to die as a result of diarhhoea than a breastfed child.
  
• The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1.5 million infants die around the world every year because they are not breastfed." ~Free Trade or Fair Trade, INFACT Canada (emphasis mine)

even here in the U.S., the lack of education on breastfeeding and illegally aggressive marketing by formula companies has the most detrimental effect on low-income mothers, as found by a study done by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO):

“Too few U.S. infants breastfeed, according to national recommendations, and breastfeeding rates are even lower for infants on WIC [Women, Infants and Children, a federal nutrition program for low-income women and children up to age 5]…If rates do not increase, many mothers and infants will continue to miss out on the health benefits of breastfeeding. This is particularly important for low-income children, who often have less access to health care and poorer health. The United States will also spend billions of dollars more in avoidable health care costs.” ~ BREASTFEEDING: Some Strategies Used to Market Infant Formula May Discourage Breastfeeding; State Contracts Should Better Protect against Misuse of WIC Name, U.S. Government Accountability Office (Report #GAO-06-282)

and the really, really sad part is that the benefits of breastfeeding (to both mother and child) are numerous and invaluable, and most people don't know about it because of the lack of education that exists. so if you don't know what some of the benefits are, please click on this link here and read about just 101 reasons. even if you're a guy or you're a woman with no intention of bearing a child or you're already a mom and you formula fed or you're already breastfeeding or breastfed your children...the more people are informed, the more they will be encouraged to breastfeed or to support their loved ones who breastfeed or want to breastfeed.

the 2nd article that refers to breastfeeding on that yahoo most emailed news screen shot is an example of one such benefit--reducing anxiety into childhood for breastfed kids. read the whole article here.

it's no wonder that the World Health Organization and UNICEF have worked hard for a number of years to promote breastfeeding, especially in developing countries:

"Breastfeeding is an unequalled way of providing ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants; it is also an integral part of the reproductive process with important implications for the health of mothers. As a global public health recommendation, infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life to achieve optimal growth, development and health. There after, to meet their evolving nutritional requirements, infants should receive nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods while breastfeeding continues for up to two years of age or beyond. Exclusive breastfeeding from birth is possible except for a few medical conditions, and unrestricted exclusive breastfeeding results in ample milk production." ~ Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding, The World Health Organization (Paragraph 10, emphasis mine)

i don't consider myself a lactivist. i don't secretly judge women who bottlefeed their infants in public. even if i had never been able to breastfeed cadence, i would still feel the same way about breastfeeding, and i would feel the same way about formula companies. i have a number of friends who wanted so much to breastfeed but weren't able to, and it is for them that i will do my part in educating my little sphere of the public about breastfeeding in hopes that there will be an increase in support for women who want to breastfeed, not just in the medical community or the attachment parenting community, but in the public at large.

my hope is that no woman would choose to formula feed as a result of just not knowing. my hope is that no woman would have to try desperately to comfort her hungry and screaming infant in public because she is too embarrassed to nurse in public. and most importantly, my hope is that if enough people are informed, we as a society will not allow the poorest among us, whether here in the U.S. or abroad, to be duped into choosing formula-feeding over breastfeeding because of unethical marketing or because the mother's jobs do not provide the flexibility to continue nursing after returning to work.

now, is that too much to ask???