Is Breast Really Best?
Are the benefits of breastfeeding babies exaggerated?
I am not against breastfeeding, nor do I support child abuse, and I am not being paid by the formula industry. I have been accused of all three, most recently in reader comments on an interview I did for MacLean’s magazine. Ironically, it was precisely this kind of vitriol that first inspired me to write Is Breast Best?. I wanted to understand how breastfeeding has come to be perceived as the holy grail of health and formula-feeding as the equivalent of giving a baby nicotine. I wanted to have a better sense of why parents have come to believe that how they feed their baby might be the most important decision they’ll ever make and why our public conversations about baby feeding have become so toxic.
What I discovered is that our certainty that “breast is best” far exceeds what the evidence tells us. This misguided confidence in breastfeeding stems from our poor understanding of science. It also comes from the (often unconscious) belief that mothers are all-powerful and that if they try hard enough, they can eliminate risk and produce completely healthy children. We’d like to believe both that the research tells us more than it does and that mothers have a lot more control – and deserve a lot more blame – than they actually do.
In short, writing my book made clear to me that debates about baby feeding are so hostile because they are about so much more than what’s best for babies. And the result of these debates is a culture in which mothers who do not breastfeed are portrayed as harming their children.
I don’t claim that there are no differences between children who have been breast- or bottle-fed. Thousands of studies find that the average breastfed baby is healthier than the average formula-fed baby. What they haven’t found is compelling evidence that breastfeeding causes better health. As the old saying goes, correlation does not equal causation. The better health of breastfed babies could well be due, in part or completely, to other things that breastfeeding moms are doing, not to the breast milk itself.
For example, if you make sure everyone who touches your baby washes their hands first, if you keep your baby away from the grocery store at 5:00, if you can afford to have someone care for your baby in your home, you’re probably doing a lot to reduce your baby’s chances of getting an infection. If you encourage your child to eat healthy foods and to exercise, you’re contributing to healthy body weight. If you read to and have meaningful conversations with your child, you’re stimulating cognitive development.
In fact, if you do the research, you’ll find that it’s not uncommon for scientists to stress the benefits of breastfeeding and at the same time acknowledge that it’s not clear whether some babies are better off because they are or were breast-fed or because they have caretakers who are willing and able to promote good health in other ways. [See, for example, Matthew W. Gilman et. al., "Risk of Overweight among Adolescents Who Were Breastfed," Journal of the American Medical Association, 2001; Erik Lykke Mortensen et. al., "The Association Between Duration of Breastfeeding and Adult Intelligence," Journal of the American Medical Association, 2002.]
Breastfeeding advocates, meanwhile, argue that the sheer number of studies connecting breastfeeding with healthier babies makes the benefits of breastfeeding irrefutable. What they don’t mention is that lots of studies, including many published in top research journals, find that breastfeeding has little or no medical benefit. [See, among others, Catharine Gale et. al., "Breastfeeding, the Use of Docosahexaenoic Acid-Fortified Formulas in Infancy and Neuropsychological Function in Childhood," Archives of Disease in Childhood, 2009; and Michael S. Kramer et. al., "Effect of Prolonged and Exclusive Breastfeeding on Risk of Allergy and Asthma: Cluster Randomized Trial," British Medical Journal, 2007.] They also fail to point out that you can’t fix errors or gaps in the research with quantity; if you have one study that is seriously flawed or that can’t account for an alternative explanation, having 10 or 100 similar studies doesn’t make the problem go away.
There is pretty strong evidence that breastfeeding helps reduce gastrointestinal (GI) infections, but even here we need to be careful not to overstate its benefits. One of the most widely respected studies on breastfeeding [Michael Kramer et. al., "Promotion of Breastfeeding Intervention Trial (PROBIT): A Randomized Trial in the Republic of Belarus," Journal of the American Medical Association, 2001] indicated that for every twenty-five breastfed babies there would be one fewer GI infection in the first year. That’s a benefit, but it’s fairly minimal, and parents need to decide whether the benefit is worth the cost.
And breastfeeding has real costs. The blogosphere is full of testimonials from women who suffered horrible emotional distress and depression from breastfeeding [See, for example, reader responses to the New York Times article, "Breastfeed or Else," June 20, 2006]. Just because you don’t pay cash for it doesn’t mean breastfeeding is free.
Another way some advocates push the superiority of breastfeeding is by promoting the idea that breastfeeding is “natural” and therefore must be superior to “artificial” formula. Yet humans do all sorts of things that other mammals don’t, and many of them are “unnatural,” if by that you mean that they manipulate or circumvent nature. Birth control is unnatural, but so are refrigeration, pasteurization, automobiles, and air conditioning. “Unnatural” does not necessarily mean “unhealthy.”
Most people – mothers included – endorse breastfeeding at least in part because they have a poor understanding and consuming fear of risk. Formula can be contaminated in production, the thinking goes, so why take the risk? Better safe than sorry. But, in addition to the short and long-term risks of breastfeeding for mothers, “natural” breastfeeding poses risks for babies, too. You’d probably be unhappy if you knew exactly what was in your breast milk; in fact, milk is such a good conduit for toxins like lead and DDT that toxicologists often use it to assess environmental contamination. [See, for example, Betsy Lozoff et. al., "Higher Infant Blood Levels with Longer Duration of Breastfeeding," Journal of Pediatrics, 2009; Philip Landrigan et. al., "Chemical Contaminants in Breast Milk and Their Impacts on Children's Health," Environmental Health Perspectives, 2002.] This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t breastfeed; what it means is that science simply has been unable to determine if there are long-term effects of these pollutants. Unfortunately, we just don’t know.
As parents, we make myriad risky decisions every day. Car brakes can malfunction; does that keep you from putting your baby in the car? The truth is that our culture pays more attention to some baby health risks than others, and these tend to be the ones that mothers are expected to alleviate. What’s optimal for a baby gets defined in terms of what mothers can do to optimize.
Certainly mothers (and fathers) should be expected to make sacrifices for their children. What bothers me is that mothers (and not fathers) are expected to prevent virtually any risk to their babies, regardless of how unlikely or poorly understood that risk is or what it will cost them in the process.
I would argue that how you feed your baby (in a developed country with reliable access to clean water) is largely a lifestyle choice and that in the overwhelming majority of cases, either breastfeeding or formula-feeding is a healthy option. These, today, are fighting words, and they lead almost invariably to a conversation in which, by defending formula, I am cast as being against breastfeeding.
But what I’m against, really, is misinformation and the use of breastfeeding – or not breastfeeding – to make mothers feel bad about themselves.
Some women find breastfeeding deeply rewarding, and for them, breastfeeding is the right choice. Others find that formula-feeding works much better, and for them, breastfeeding is the wrong choice. We all know terrific mothers who formula-feed, and plenty of formula-fed babies are as healthy as those who are breastfed. Science has not demonstrated that breastfeeding has serious health advantages, and we need to stop making claims that breastfeeding is the only choice for mothers who care about their children.
Thank you for writing such a reasonable article on such a hot button topic. I wasn’t able to breastfeed my oldest and suffered from terrible depression because of it. Now I find it somewhat amusing that while the elder never suffered from ear infections as an infant, my younger, exclusively breastfed son has had one a month all winter. Go figure
“New High Stakes of Motherhood”….ugh. If you truly can’t breastfeed you shouldn’t feel guilty, maybe just feel lucky that there are alternatives to keep your baby alive. If you can breastfeed and you don’t…well, I really just don’t have the words. I find the author’s position very distasteful and maybe a little dangerous (if anyone is actually listening). The WHO, pediatric physicians, midwives and centuries of history are all wrong and Joan Wolf and Hannah Rosin are right? It’s just that we have fallen so far away from what is natural that so many women would find breastfeeding “hard” or that it would require “work”. I wonder what amount of research shows breastfeeding rates in those who have birthed naturally versus those with interventions? Interventions can make it more difficult to breastfeed. Maybe what needs to be changed in our reliance on fake crutches to get by…maybe what needs to be changed is the work culture that drives half of women back to the office when their infants are not even six months old…but don’t try to build a scientific case against something that needs no proof. Breastfeeding is the NORM, formula feeding is a “fix” to a pathology.
Thank you for a well-written, balanced article.
I CHOSE to formula feed my son 6 years ago and have no regrets because it was the best thing for us at the time. Now I’m trying to decide what to do with my baby due in a few months. I may try breast feeding but have already decided that I am no martyr and if doesn’t work out I will use formula instead of making both me and the baby suffer. I have a family to take care of and can’t waste my time agonizing over one small issue.
Honestly, articles like this are a symptom of the larger problem, which is our societys inclination to turn every choice parents make into a debate. I personally have strong feelings about breastfeeding, co-sleeping, cry it out, spanking, and a number of other issues, and as a result those feelings influence the choices I make for my child. And thats the end of it. No one is going to win this debate. Mothers who feel strongly that breastfeeding is best will continue to nurse their children and mothers who do not feel strongly about it, or who cannot breastfeed for whatever reason, will feed their children formula. All the debate does is fuel the fire and make Moms feel guilty and at odds with each other. If we could all agree to stop writing books and articles and blogs about how one or the other method is superior, we could all go back to just parenting our children the way we see fit.
Nice article on an important, though controversial subject. It’s a nice evidenced-based piece to further support an editorial I wrote years ago to help diminish the enormous guilt many new mothers feel who chose to stop or never start breastfeeding. Postpartum women who are struggling with depression are uniquely vulnerable to this pressure. Thank you. http://postpartumstress.com/pages/breast_best.html
What I find disturbing is the recent trend it seems to almost desperately argue that “oh – formula is fine, that breast really isn’t that great after all.”
Breastmilk doesn’t make any corporation money. Formula does, so it has to be defended.
I actually agree that no one should be made to feel bad. Of course. Guilt. Moms. Enough. I also agree that breastfeeding advocates have maybe taken a wrong turn in touting “health benefits” so relentlessly. It comes from a good place, but what it’s done is made breastfeeding into yet another way to get your baby ahead. It puts breastfeeding into the realm of anxious over-achieving parenting, rather than in the realm of the the female body and the way mothers and babies function together, physiologically.
I think many women don’t breastfeed in America because we have such fraught relationships with our bodies. I’ve heard many, many times women talk about how they find it rather disgusting. Our culture accepts lots of hot tits; their spread over every magazine in the land, but we are still revolted by milk-filled ones? Too often we move away from those complicated conversations about the body by saying things like breastfeeding is a “lifestyle” choice. I’m not saying everyone should do it. Just that the when the conversation is purely about benefits and studies, we miss out on some important issues about what the female body is capable of and whether or not that is disgusting.
While this article is fine, I feel as if the author is missing the point. Most mothers DO NOT BREASTFEED. And if they do breastfeed, rarely past three months and even more rarely past six months. The moms who DO breastfeed are truly in the minority, and in general tend to be educated white women who have careers instead of jobs (such as the writers and what I suspect many of the readers of Babble.)
The other point is that although breastmilk is superior nutrition, that is not it’s strongest point. The best part of breastfeeding is that it is done on a baby’s cues of hunger/satiety and consistently by the same caregiver. Bottle feeding CAN be done this way, but I’ve rarely seen it accomplished this way, especially as the baby gets older. How many times have you seen the bottle propped in the carseat, seen a baby crawling/toddling around with a bottle?
Callie, I couldn’t have put it better myself. When you liken choosing to breastfeed or not to choosing to put your child in a car in the morning, it is sound bites like this that just give food for the fodder. People should just be grateful that they have the ability to choose and be supportive of their friends in their communities
I’m speechless. I tried to find the true motive behind this article and I come up blank.
I think this issue is hard. I understand where both sides of the aisle are coming from. Perhaps that is because my baby is a both-er. She is both breast and formula fed. I do understand why people feel like breastfeeding needs promoted and defended. Maybe it isn’t always done the right way, but as a woman who was approached by a security guard at an outdoor market….I get it. Society needs to be more supportive of breastfeeding. On the other hand, I experienced the guilt of not being able to pump enough (and hating every single moment of pumping). My mantra was “formula is not the f word.” There is not enough support for breastfeeding, but a lot of the “support” that we do have is not helpful. Just look at these comments. Milkmade puts “hard” and “work” in quotation marks, as though women who struggle are just whining. My baby was tongue tied. Half of my nipple got gnawed off. That is not an exageration. Pardon me if I described that period of breastfeeding (as I continued to nurse on an open wound) work. It was ridiculously hard. And I wouldn’t blame anyone for deciding to call it quits if they were in the same position or any other for that matter. What if instead of “Breast is best” we went with “hey everybody likes boobs, even your baby, give it a try!”
Whateverthe author has clearly done a some research andfor reasons I dont understandis willing to put her neck out to bash the Breast is Best movement, but I think she is really REALLY (and sadly) missing the motivation behind the rally cry to breastfeed. Sure, its about breast milk, but its also about acknowledging that taking care of an infant is not a privilege given only to the wealthy and that all women should have the rightand supportto take care of their childrenpublicly and in their places of employmentwithout stigma or discipline. My work recently added a dedicated lactation room to our offices as part of the Obama health care law. My child is grown and I no longer breastfeed, but this gesture goes a long way in saying that wemy job, and the United States of Americaacknowledge that being a mother is important and should not keep women from contributing to the workforce. To me, Breast is Best is a way of saying Women are Worthy and Motherhood Matters. Its important that our government, our states and cities, our policies, our places of employment begin to ease the kinds of difficult decisions that they are forcing on mothers and if Breast is Best is where were starting that conversationwell, good. I hope that conversation can evolve in many many more rich and meaningful ways. But, I just dont have patience for a woman willfully derailing that conversation with articles like this. Dont sabotage the one way the government is interested in helping mothers bond for and care for their babies. If you want to broaden this groundswell, Im all with you. But if this kind of mother-bashing is all you have to offer, please just SHUT UP.
thank you so much for actually doing research on the research!! I was a formula feeding mom and wow – i’ve never ever felt so attacked or judged in my life. It’s amazing how much strangers really “care” about my kids – ha – or in most cases, use their “love” of my kids as a way to attack me to defend their own choices for whatever reason. Anyway – thanks for sharing a valuable point of view.
Yes, thank you for a level, reasonable, balances discussion of this topic. And in response to this comment by MilkMade: “It’s just that we have fallen so far away from what is natural that so many women would find breastfeeding ‘hard’ or that it would require ‘work’.”- YES! It is hard! It does require work! It was never, ever easy for me! In fact, it was so unbearably painful in my left breast that I had to spend hours each day pumping to keep the supply up- for 7 weeks. I had painful engorgement, constant discomfort. Almost everyone I have spoken to who had breastfed agrees it is very hard work. I was able to breastfeed my daughter for a year, but it was a struggle for the first six months- and that’s with the help of a lactation consultant. When I weaned her, I was incredibly relieved to have my body back, and there is nothing wrong with that. I think it’s wonderful that some people have had an easy time with breastfeeding, but that doesn’t mean there is something wrong with all the women out there who aren’t that lucky.
It’s “hard” because there’s no tradition any more of mothers, women in the family, etc. sharing their knowledge. It’s “hard” because of interventions in birth. It’s “hard” because most people are “plastic people” who are so far removed from the way nature works, both their own bodies and the natural world around them. It’s “hard” because people think they’re supposed to be on some schedule and have their babes sleeping X amount of hours straight, they think they’re supposed to go back to work and leave the infant in someone else’s care, and on and on. That’s just not how it’s supposed to work. Newsflash: when you have an infant, you really do have to be on call and with that infant, ready to give it what it needs 24/7, probably for 9 months to a year. The stress, trouble, etc. comes in trying to force the primal infant into modern, adult schedules and conveniences. Truly. But, careers and advancement at all costs, you know? Right?!
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Although I do breastfeed, I’m glad someone pointed out that formula is not poison. I HATE how some women act like women are bad mothers just because they give their baby formula. It really gets on my nerves. Just saying.
I appreciate that Babble published this. I have my own very strong opinions about breastfeeding and many other parenting choices. And that’s why I come to Babble. I like to hear different perspectives and stop to think about choices I make and the choices of other mothers: what many of us have in common and what sets us apart. Some articles make me angry. But, mostly, they give me insight. And that helps me go on to make more of the choices I think are best for my family.
As a mom who exclusively breastfed for 7 months before weaning to formula for medical reasons, I have mixed feelings about this article. On the one hand, I am so thankful that I was able to give my daughter formula when she needed it and that she thrived on it. I did feel guilty about weaning and that seems silly now.
On the other hand, I think, as some posters have alluded to, breastfeeding is about much more than the content of the milk. It is about a relationship between mother and child that truly cannot be replicated with bottle feeding. Babies breastfeed for sustenance and for comfort. When my daughter would cluster feed each night for hours on end, it definitely wasn’t all about food. And while she could have sucked a pacifier instead (and she uses one now!), it would not have been the same as her being cuddled against my skin, smelling my scent and suckling at my breast. Bottle feeding, while certainly a bonding moment for parent and child, can only be provided for sustenance.
I wish the less desirous things about breastfeeding would be talked about. I haven’t been able to wear contacts because my eyes are dry. My gums are bleeding. My skin holds less moisture. My back hurts from hunching over with my larger breasts. I have been exclusively pumping for the last 10 months because my daughter has a cleft lip and palate and I extremely grateful for formula when I am unable to produce enough breastmilk. There is so much intense pressure to be the everything mom and I don’t know that my body can physically hold up to all it. It seems like each mom has to negotiate what she can put her body and her child through.We need to be open about the impact of breastfeeding or formula feeding so we can make educated decisions.
MilkMade, I must respond to this attitude that mothers choose to go back to work because they’re on some sort of career hype. May I say, first of all, lucky you for being one of the fortunate few who has the option of staying home with her child indefinitely. That aside, maybe you could stop making broad assumptions and realize that a lot of women have no desire to leave their baby for work, but if they want to actually feed that baby, they kind of have to.
I agree with the author as well that human beings do many things that are ‘un-natural’. If you live in a house, drive a car, and are commenting on this blog post with your computer, face it, you are not being ‘natural’ in most areas of your life. (I am also guessing that you do not grow or hunt all of your own food or sew all of your own clothing – AND if you do choose to eat anything processed that is not completely organic and natural, then your breastfed baby is not exactly getting all natural foods either then, is he?)
All that being said, I agree that breast is best. I also do feed my baby formula for very personal and heart-wrenching reasons, and the incredible guilt I felt over making that decision (and still sometimes do) is exactly what this author is addressing. I do not believe that I am feeding my baby poison, but that is what a lot of the lactivists out there are claiming. How am I supposed to go to a hateful group like that for support when I am struggling? People who will respond with a simple, ‘work harder – you chose to have kids – deal with it, etc.’ I give everything to my baby with no regrets – I am there for her 24/7 – I don’t need to be made to feel like I am short changing her entire existence because I was not successful in this one area.
lol normally I don’t even care to get so up in arms about such things, but acting like every mother makes the decision to go back to work or formula feed out of selfishness is a powerful judgment call – I sure hope those of you who are making it are as perfect as you think you are.
There should be A LOT more support for breastfeeding mothers, but you catch more flies with honey then you ever will with vinegar, and as long as you keep hating on moms who are struggling, you’re never going to get as far as you want to go.
OK, off my soapbox now.
Thoughtful and well-written article.
Kelly, I am addressing reasons why people have so much trouble with breastfeeding, not saying that people have to live “naturally” in every aspect of their lives. However, newborn babies only know “natural” ie, what’s programmed biologically into humans, and, the want and need for breastmilk to is biologically programmed. Also, I am not attacking women as individuals who have to go to work (or feel they do). I am critiquing the *system* that necessitates women go back to work too soon after giving birth. This, to me, comes from a combination of misplaced feminist efforts and capitalism gone unchecked. Additionally, many women who do go back to work, pump and work very hard to give their babies breastmilk, so in that case, I do think it is a matter of how bad do you want to do it. I think I can tell exactly what kind of woman this Joan Wolf is, and I would say she is the brand of feminist that devalues those things that are traditionally female in the name of equality when all she is really doing is making women play a man’s game of placing work and capitalism at the top of all else, while at the same time whining that she can’t do A, B or C…
MilkMade, I do appreciate your response to me personally as probably more kind than I was or would have been. I apologize if I was rude. To continue the discussion…you are right that newborn babies only know natural – but are they biologically programmed to want and need breast milk, or to want and need food? I’ll admit I’m playing a bit of a devil’s advocate here, but are a newborn’s basic needs for food, comfort, and shelter? Or for the specifics of breastmilk, mother’s bed, and a 3 bedroom house, for instance? Otherwise, I am in full agreement with you that the system is crap – I wish with everything in me that I wouldn’t have to go back to work, but I don’t have a choice – and I know a lot of women don’t. However, I disagree with your claim that you know ‘exactly what kind of woman this Joan Wolf is’ from reading one blog post. It is exactly these kind of broad, sweeping judgments that I believe Joan is calling for an end to, and that is where I am in agreement with her. It is pretty rare that as people we can understand exactly why another person is making the decisions or statements that they do. I don’t see anywhere in this post that Joan is calling for absolute equality between men and women (though she does argue truthfully that most of the burden for these things is on the mothers rather than on both parents), or that she is asking women to play a man’s game. What I got is the idea that formula feeding mothers can be just as good as breastfeeding mothers, and that we should all try to judge each other a little less. And honestly, I am far from thinking of myself as a feminist, but do you really believe that if men were having the babies and doing the breast feeding that the entire system wouldn’t be a lot different?
While I can buy into your rationalization that either of these options are quality choices for people with access to clean drinking water, I have dispute with your dispute with your claim that are refrigeration, pasteurization, automobiles, and air conditioning are healthy. Reevaluate that thought. Without the aforementioned technology we would naturally eat fresher food, breath cleaner air, and get more exercise (not that I want to live without them). You seem to get lost in your argument, BLUF you dont feel that women should shoulder the burden for the health of their children. Agreed; however, not won over by your article.
Joan — fascinating article, thank you.
On the one hand, I think there is some merit to “what is natural is generally better” argument, but I agree that it’s usually overstated. Michael Pollan makes the case in Omnivore’s Dilemma that humans and vegetables (and fruits and animals, for that matter) have co-evolved for millions of years, and we are just beginning to understand the health benefits of eating organic vegetables, and the health costs of eating food that has come from some other source. Nutrition is profoundly complex, he argues, and we understand only the tip of the iceberg. The more we know, the more clear it is that changes we have made to the food chain have deleterious effects on humans. This same argument makes rational sense applied to breast milk vs. formula.
On the other hand, I absolutely agree with your fundamental premise that there is a HUGE amount of totally irrational judgment around this subject which is really about something else entirely. It’s clear that formula has gotten a lot better in the last 30 years, and that supplementing with formula (which my wife and I have done) or using formula is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. But you are quite right — utter those words and you are accused of being part of some huge evil conspiracy financed by the huge evil formula companies. Why is this? I think your explanations make a lot of sense, and I also think it’s part of some kind of more generalized resentment people feel towards technology and big business and it’s encroachment on our lives. It’s kind of like the whole home birth thing — nothing wrong with it, fine choice for some women, but there is a righteousness that comes into the conversation which has nothing to do with the subject at hand.
It’s true, Kelly, I don’t know for sure what kind of woman she is, but I’ve seen this kind of rhetoric before, so I feel reasonably sure. I did not read “just” this one blog post of hers, but some other things, too, and her credentials are telling, as well. Anyway, I do think that humans are biological programmed to need and seek mother’s milk. They root! Infants generally do not need to be taught to breastfeed either, they just do it. They actually have a sucking reflex. Now, I know there are issues with mamas needing to guide the babies so they don’t pinch or so their lips fit around the nipple/areola just right, but that’s kind of an icing on the cake thing. Generally, a healthy baby, especially one that has come into this world without drugs or interventions or other birth traumas sometimes brought on by a medicalized birth, is lively and ready to nurse when put on mama’s bare skin. Mother’s “bed and a 3-bedroom house” are not part of it, no, but mother’s body, whether it is in a bed, or on the floor or wherever and mother’s breast are most definitely sought by infants. And to think of them being denied this, just by someone’s choice, not because they have an actual medical problem, is a little heartbreaking. Anyway…
Enough with the breastfeeding debate articles! I think everything worth reading on this topic has already been written. Have all the interesting parenting subjects been exhausted babble so you have to rehash this so much?
I have to reject MilkMade’s arguments because her subtext seems clear; women should stay home. Women should not want or need more than four hours of cleep in a row. Women should just accept that they must conform their lives to their infant’s needs with no adaptation or assistance from family members or others.
BS.
Many women have to work and many women want to work. There is far more to mothering (parenting) than infancy. And the female bondage to it that people like MilkMade cling to.
sleep not cleep.
– typed by a breastfeeding mom who did not get more than four hours of sleep last night.
I’m curious what your diet is like, and your health. In my own experience, real whole food the way it grows out of the ground is far superior to anything that comes in a box at the store. When I stopped eating processed food and started eating actual, fresh real food I found true health, energy and vitality. And I see the same results in every single client I’ve ever worked with. I don’t need a scientist to prove it. The proof is in how we feel.
So, with that notion in mind, I do plan to breastfeed. Because it’s the way babies are meant to eat, it’s real food as intended by nature. Just like fresh fruits and veggies are for me.
http://FindYourBalanceHealth.com
Theresmoretoit: Most people can nurse and get the sleep they need if they co-sleep, and if not, it is only for a short time in life that the sacrifice must be made. Further, if you want to work soooo badly, you can certainly pump, although, yes, I do think that if you can’t spare (at least) one year of your life to stay home with a baby, you might want to think twice about having one. If you cannot even do this, you are in for a world of hurt when it comes to the “sacrifices” you’re going to have to make for your kid. You don’t need to “stay home” forever, but there is a certain amount of time, and it’s longer than 6-12 weeks or whatever passes for “maternity leave” these days, that an infant really does need it’s mother for the vast majority of its 24-hour days. And yes, I know this is what feminists like Joan Wolf and Hannah Rosin and Elisabeth Badinter and Erica Jong and the rest rail against…but they can rant and deny the natural order of things all they want, but it doesn’t change reality.
MilkMade. I smell what you are cooking.
And I reject it outright.
Its the old “Why even have kids argument.”
Phooey.
I am so happy that I (and my sons) live in a culture swayed more by the Rosens and the Jongs than by you.
Thank you so much for writing this article. I had to formula feed my daughter for medical reasons and have been told by so many lactation-nazi mothers what a bad mother I am without ever bothering to knowing our situation.
There are lot of wonderful things you can do to support the healthy development of your baby, breast feeding is one, so is reading lots of books to them, spending lots of time outside when weather permits, getting rid of your tv, eating healthy… but nobody seems to be attacking women who put their kids in front of Sponge Bob every morning or barely read one book a day the same way they do if you’re not breastfeeding.
Thank you for standing up for the rest of us.
“I wanted to understand how breastfeeding has come to be perceived as the holy grail of health and formula-feeding as the equivalent of giving a baby nicotine.”
I love this article so much I want to marry it.
To be clear, I don’t think formula is evil or even poison. It’s a fine alternative if you’re not physically able to breastfeed. Analogy: diabetics need to take insulin because their bodies, for whatever reason, don’t produce enough of it. It’s a pathology, it’s not necessarily anything to be ashamed of or feel guilty about (unless you let yourself become a fat slob and didn’t exercise so you acquired the disease, but that is another story). Point is, formula is fine if you can’t make milk, but it doesn’t need apologists trying to set up some flimsy attack on breastmilk. I find that just petty and silly. And as far as what I’m “cooking”, @theresmoretoit, *I* am not cooking anything. This is just the way it is. Fight it all you want, all parties (mamas and babies) may come out OK, but I will tell you this, it was a whole lot easier not to fight it. To do the time with an infant, to, god forbid, ENJOY mothering. When I say, why bother having kids, I guess I would just wonder what one expects out of being a mother and what responsibilities one thinks they have to their child. I would question a person who was giving their baby a bottle about their choice on a personal level, but on a societal level of commentary about mores and such, I would absolutely question the feminist need to give women “permission” to willfully do their babies a disservice in the way this author is doing.
Thinking more about MilkMade. Her comments strike me as exactly the sort of blather this articles calls on the carpet: That breastfeeding is so vitally important — the holy grail — that women should sacrafice everything — their careers, their sanity, their health, their sleep, their happiness — in order to succeed at it. Anything less, is maternal failure.
Pretty high stakes.
What I gather from the research is that for a developed country with access to clean water, the stakes really are not that high and certainly do not warrant confining women to their domestic, maternal sphere for the duration of their children’s infancy.
What is lost in all of this is the sadness and grief women feel who wanted to breastfeed, but who could not overcome challenges (whether those challenges are significant or worthy enough to merit any consideration from the likes of MilkMade, who from her tone is a real hit over at MotheringDotCom, I am willing to bet).
A more supportive culture would look to minimize those challenges rather than to hype health benefits with the aim of intimidating or guilting women into doing something most want to do anyway.
This article is such a refreshing change of pace. I felt so much guilt about not being successful at breastfeeding my now 6 month old son when he was born. I had to have an emergency c-section due to rapidly decreasing kidney and liver function after going through 21 hours of induced labor. I simply did not have the energy to try and breastfeed right away, not to mention how drugged up I was. It seemed like all most of the nurses at the hospital cared about was whether or not I was breastfeeding. My recovery was secondary. I received multiple calls in my room about breastfeeding classes and was questioned repeatedly regarding my decision to let my son sleep in the nusery. I had just been through surgery after some of my major organs were shutting down, and I was exhausted. That was no big deal to these people, though. When my son had trouble latching on, I ended up renting a fancy hospital pump for two months. I even decided to forgo medication when I developed a severe sinus infection a week after he was born so that I could continue pumping. I was miserable. When I did stop pumping, I felt so guilty about formula feeding my baby, but exclusively pumping can be frustrating and exhausting. If I ever have another child, I will try again to breastfeed, but if it does not work out, I will NOT feel guilty about it. We were just at the doctor’s office today for a check-up, and my son is now in the 50th percentile for weight and 90th for height for his age and doing incredibly well. People simply need to back off when it comes to a mother’s feeding method of choice.
Seriously, are we still arguing about this? Breastfeeding mothers will always feel attacked for being chastised for feeding in public. Formula feeding mothers will always feel attacked for not breastfeeding regardless of their reasons. The health benefits are pretty concrete, not to mention, it’s just natural. But the problem is that by stating obvious facts, it makes some mothers feel righteous and judgmental in their choice to breastfeed, and others feel insecure and angry because they either can’t, or choose not to breastfeed. I’m pretty sure science has demonstrated the superiority of breast milk, or are we not considering non-Western countries? Artificial food is…well, artificial. It doesn’t mean it’s toxic (well, usually), and it certainly doesn’t mean that those who choose to formula feed love their babies any less than those who breastfeed, but another article hoping to undermine breast feeding yet again to spare feelings? Are we trying to go back to the fifties?
Noobs…please read. I said repeatedly that people shouldn’t feel guilty if they have to use formula and that formula is not poison. That doesn’t make valuable this kind of false academic analysis attempting to poke holes in something that needs no proof or support (breastfeeding), because it’s NORMAL. Women don’t need their feelings spared or to be coddled. They are not feeble, delicate creatures who cannot handle the truth. Or, they shouldn’t be, but from the sound of it, many have become that way. That’s not feminism.
Oh my god, these comments make me want to spoon my eyes out. Really? The author is attacking breastfeeding? I’m not sure we read the same article. I think the author is writing to the Babble audience of the largely educated, largely upper/middle class, largely white audience who are the ones who statistically most likely to breastfeed and saying DEAR GOD DON’T BEAT YOURSELF UP if it is not working for you. All these folks blathering on about how it’s the way we were made are missing the point: we live in a world in which is pretty f’in hard to avoid pesky things that interfere with breastfeeding from pitocin to environmental hormone disruptors to you know, having paid employment. Lots of women are beating themselves up for feeling like they can’t go on after weeks of the craziness of nursing / pumping / supplementing every 2-3 hours around the clock because their supply isn’t enough. Lots of women are beating themselves up because their kid can’t get the latch right after a month and they cannot face more bloody nipples. Lots of women are worrying that their kid with a weak suck is starving after weeks of insufficient weight gain to satisfy their doctors. And these women feel GUILTY and like they have FAILED AS WOMEN because of all the mean spirited lactivist a**holes who say that if you only care about your child enough you will make breastfeeding work, dammit. It’s natural, after all.
And before you tell *me* off for failing my child, I personally decided to move hell and high water to get my supply up to exclusively breastfeed my son until 6 months. I nursed, I pumped, I took domperidone, I ate oatmeal, I pumped, I pumped, I pumped – and I am glad I did even though it was hell. I just think that I have no right at all to make any woman feel like less of a mother for making a different choice.
And yes: there are lots of barriers to breastfeeding and I will sign letters and go to marches and raise hell to get better family leave and more places to pump and make it more societally acceptable to breastfeed in public – I just won’t make women who arrived at formula feeding as the right choice for their family feel bad while I do it.
I was fortunate, in that my body loved to produce milk, and both of my children had a very easy time latching on and going to it. I always had a very ample milk supply and found breastfeeding, while sometimes demanding, to be an incredibly easy, wonderful and happy experience. But, I also witnessed my sister-in-law’s struggle. Neither of her daughters latched on easily and her body just did not want to produce milk. She even attempted to pump and bottle feed, but I witnessed her pump for an hour, only to get about 2 ounces of milk (which she was SO proud of and so excited about–how could I tell her that I produced 8 ounces in about 5 minutes?!?!?!). She tried so hard and it sent her into a downward spiral of self loathing, depression and feelings of anger towards her newborn. Thankfully, our family was incredibly supportive of the idea of NOT breastfeeding.
I think that breastfeeding is great–if you can do it. But, I also think that it is a personal choice and we need to ease up and not be so judgmental on new moms. We have enough pressure on us to raise the perfect child and to be perfect moms….how about if we just try being supportive and kind to one and other?
Amen. Great article.
I did not read a single comment from a woman of color. I am sick that breastfeeding has become a cult for the white educated woman. The woman who can afford to leisurely breastfeed exclusively while poor minority women, who can’t even afford to take 3 full months of maternity leave feed their children with formula (although many breastfeed in addition to). As an educated woman of color I am digusted by the comments made by “Milk Made,” there is something slightly eugenic in their tone! I was both breastfed and formula fed by my mother- I turned out fine. I plan on breastfeeding my kiddo and supplementing with formula, I’m sure he’ll turn out fine too.
I’m baffled as to why the author makes no mention of the financial interests of the pharmaceutical companies that make formula and how they influence the decisions women make about infant feeding. She also neglects to mention the (mostly) abysmal support women get in the U.S. to breastfeed. With the state of our maternity care (costly and sub-par as compared to other developed nations not to mention largely breastfeeding UNfriendly), the complete lack of evidence-based breastfeeding knowledge of most health care providers, and the pathetic amount of maternity leave that most women receive, it’s no surprise that our breastfeeding rates are some of the lowest in the entire world. If the pressure to breastfeed is so crushing, why do only 43% of American babies get *any* breastmilk at 6mos of age? As for women who can’t produce enough milk: if our culture actually valued human milk (heck–if we valued babies!), there would be a network of formal milk banks and informal milk sharing among mothers. We figured out blood banks a long time ago!
I also don’t understand why I’m supposed to accept the author’s conclusions about the scientific literature on infant feeding. I think the American Academy of Pediatrics, the World Health Organization, and the U.S. Surgeon General are better prepared to offer opinions and conclusions about health and how it relates to breastfeeding. Dr. Wolf is a Gender Studies professor with a book to sell.
True feminist inquiry wouldn’t strive to pit women against women. Unfortunately, blaming breastfeeding advocates and researchers for the angst and fatigue that U.S. mothers experience just obscures the REAL problems while allowing Nestle Corp et al to continue to fill their coffers at the expense of millions of lives worldwide.
And yes–this is a SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUE for women in the U.S. and all over the world: all babies deserve biologically-appropriate food! See what formula companies are doing in the Philippines and what “choice” really looks like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNYDPKQOVUE
How is anything I said eugenic? And how on earth can you tell the “color” of a person by black and white text on a screen? Why would anyone PLAN on breastfeeding and also supplementing? That would be something you might do if you didn’t make enough milk or something. Sounds like you’re planning for failure and you haven’t done any reading on breastfeeding. Not everything is about race, lady.
I am so happy to read this article. I had to stop breastfeeding my son at three months because of terrible, horrendous, around-the-clock screaming colic. It was so bad that he was not meeting his milestones. He was in agony every minute of every day. Once his pediatrician convinced me to try pre-digested formula he was cured within two hours. This was after I had tried everything, including putting myself on the “prison” diet to cure his protein sensitivity (no dairy, gluten, red meat, citrus, tomato products, caffeine, etc. etc.). The reason I held out so long? Because I was terrified of being a “bad” mother. I had seen my son through the NICU. I pumped and pumped and kept my supply up before he was able to abandon his feeding tube and actually nurse. I had no problems with latching or supply once he was off the feeding tube. I was all for breastfeeding, and I still am when it works for both mother and baby. However, I owe formula for my sons health and happiness today. Now he is a happy, healthy, beautiful 6 month old little man. His colic is gone, his stomach problems are gone, and he smiles at me every minute of every day.
Amen! I’m so glad to read this article. I can’t even begin to describe the depression and guilt I experienced when despite heroic efforts (even in the view of my 2nd lactation consultant) when my daughter and I were unsuccessful with breastfeeding and I finally gave myself permission to stop the round the clock pumping I’d been doing for 3 months! It’s been 3 months since then it still is a touchy a subject with me! Thank you!!
MilkMade — your comments certainly take to task women who, in your opinion I am guessing — do not have a legitimate or sufficient medical reason for not breastfeeding. They get a pass in your book. The others — the ones who “didn’t try hard enough” or “gave up too soon” or had to or chose to go back to work and could not or chose not to pump — they should feel the guilt, isn’t that the content of your previous posts?
I will agree that women are not delicate or feeble creatures who need coddling. Moreover, they do not need over-the-top, unsupported by the body of medical literature hype that says a woman should breastfeed no matter the costs.
Are there corners of the country, both geographically and culturally, that need some education about the actual, real benefits of breastfeeding (or risks of formula feeding)? Yes, one need only look at the differences in initiation rates among various groups to see a disconnect in some populations. But for the most part, the initiation rates in this country and many others demonstrate that women have received the message. They want to breastfeed.
The statistics further reveal that women are not succeeding at reaching the goal of breastfeeding exclusively for six months and then continuing for the rest of baby’s first year (and longer).
Some would suggest — and this is where I think MilkMade is at — that women stop nursing because they don’t fully appreciate the benefits of breastfeeding/risks of formula feeding and therefore are not sufficiently motivated to gut out the hard times. Or they are too lazy/selfish/career orientated to make the sacrifices necessary to be on-call for each and every feeding (or pumping).
I don’t take such a dim view of women.
Rather, I think a combination of factors are in place. First, women who have to work often are employed in fields that are not conducive to maintaining a nursing relationship after the mother returns to work, which is often ridiculously early, say six weeks post partum. And frankly, those first four to six weeks of breastfeeding are the most challenging. It is very difficult to gut out those hard days when you know your breastfeeding relationship is going to end when you have to return to a ten hour shift waitressing or working retail without paid breaks and a clean and comfortable environment to pump. For these women, the balance tips pretty heavy towards not making it to the six month mark of exclusive nursing. MilkMade, I might respect your opinion more if you pledged your willingness to pay more taxes so that all women could receive a six month stipend so that they do not have to return to work 4 to 6 weeks post partum. [crickets]
Second, even for women who do not have to return to work or who will be returning to a work environment that supports nursing moms with paid pump breaks and a clean and comfortable environment to pump, many of them may face severe challenges to their nursing efforts. Thrush, low supply, bad latches, oversupply, mastitis — these things and others can make it very hard for a mom to continue nursing. Thankfully, many women have strong support networks and knowledgeable medical help. They may be able to overcome these difficulties. But many other women are not so fortunate. And for them, the calculation of whether to continue nursing leads to the decision to switch to formula or to use formula to supplement. And for many of them the actual medical research is pretty comforting. Their exclusively or partially formula fed babies will very likely be fine. While there are increased risks across a population, for any given baby, the likelihood of suffering a negative health consequence from formula is extremely low. Babies, toddlers and children face far greater risks from riding in cars, eating popcorn or living in populations where vaccination rates have fallen to dangerously low levels due to asshats like Jenny McCarthy and Andrew Wakefield.
MilkMade – Women don’t need to be made to feel guilty by other women who are obssessed with breastfeeding. I had too many things going against me from the outset. Maybe other women could have done it, but I couldn’t. Looking back, it makes me so angry that that some many people in the hospital never seemed that interested in my recovery or well-being – they only cared about breastfeeding. We all make choices that work best for our own families. I decied to stay home with my son. We took a financial hit, but for us, it was worth it. I do not look down on women who work, though. Some have to for financial reasons while others have to to stay sane. I get that. I just wish that women who were so pro-breastfeeding to the point of being judgemental and hurtful would realize that choosing whether or not to breastfeed, pump, supplemental, or formula feed can be a complex question.
I am studying to be a lactation consultant and I am an RN. I would encourage all mothers to breastfeed for as little or as long as possible. The benefits of breastfeeding do outweigh formula. There is so much to breastfeeding that simply formula can not give the baby. Breastfeeding is specific to the infant and regulates itself according to his/her needs. Formula can not do that. The benefits of breastmilk are vitamins, immunoglobulins, leukocytes, minerals, fats, fatty acids, carbs, proteins, lactoferrin, lysosomes, taurine, the release of CCK, and many more are so specific to meet the infants needs for growth and development. The proven benefits in so many studies show higher IQ’s than formula fed infants, anti-infective agents, thymus growth, protection from NEC, sepsis and otitis media in premature infants, protection from maternal antigens, enhances infant antibody response and allergy protection. Formula’s are as follows:
An uncontrolled marketing
No protection against disease
Uncontrolled portions either too much or too little of vitamins, minerals, etc.
GMOs
Vit D are in excessive amounts
Soy formulas are 6-11xs nomal dose of isoflavones, 80 times more manganese= neuro defects which decreases in dopamine
Product recalls
Expensive
Time spent with shopping, storing, preparing, and cleaning up
Drain on community resources
Drain on health care
Many use an unsafe water supply to mix the formula
It is estimated that 3.6 billion would be saved if 75% of women in the U.S. initiated breastfeeding and 50% sustained to 6 months of age. An estimated 1.3 billion is paid by insurers for infants fed manufactured milk to treat ear infections, respiratory infections and diarrhea for the first year of life.
I look at birth and breastfeeding as empowering women because it separates women from men. Men cannot create a baby for nine months nor can he take full control over the babys health. By breastfeeding women can fully take control of babys health and nutrition. It creates autonomy for many women, financial freedom, and its a womans right.
I’m not sure if this author has kids or has even breastfed. I don’t think formula is better than breastfeeding and there is science to prove it. Women who aren’t physically capable of producing milk don’t have many options. There is donor milk which is healthier than formula which you would need a prescription for. I am a mother and have breastfed my little girl who is very healthy. When I stopped breastfeeding that was when she got sick a lot. I think women should at least give it a try and see if it works for them. Unfortunately there isn’t a lot of support for breastfed mothers because doctor’s and nurses aren’t educated enough on breastfeeding. Formula companies spend roughly $10,000 on each med student promoting it’s different types of formulas. Every OB/Peds office has advertising for formula and not breastfeeding. It’s kind of sad. There aren’t enough lactation consultants out there to so prenatal teaching which can diffuse problems later on.
I would want to be the one in control of my child’s health. I don’t see why being the one in control of your child’s health is seen as a negative by some. I wouldn’t leave my child’s health up to a multibillion dollar company who doesn’t care about my child. With corporations the bottom line in money NOT the health of your infant. No matter how much they advertise that their formula is the “closest to breast” it will never be comparable to breastmilk. This is a long comment but it’s just the tip of the iceberg of what breastfeeding has to offer.
Amanda…nobody *makes* someone feel guilty by stating true things. Certain women feel guilty because they are weak or uninformed, or, because they do have an internal barometer telling them they SHOULD feel guilty. Crickets, my ass…of course I would pay higher taxes to support longer maternity leaves for women (limiting it to one, perhaps 2 children), and in fact, universal healthcare and many other social programs that civilized countries like those in Western Europe (and many other places) offer. Although, I do think for the here and now, women have to plan and make their lives work with what they have…and, it CAN be done. I believe that we are living in a hyper-materialistic, capitalistic culture and many people (not all) who claim they MUST work when their children are infants DO NOT really have to. And, I also believe that many of the breastfeeding issues really are because people are not educated enough and do not really understand A) how the body works and what’s required to make breastfeeding successful B) the commitment involved. As I said, to really make it work, you do have to do it on demand and be on call for the infant 24/7, at least in the very beginning, up to several months, in order to establish and maintain milk supply. People don’t bother to learn and don’t bother to follow through and I have little patience any more for the whiners. What’s more, arguments like Joan Wolf’s (if she had any weight, which she probably does not now, but if her ideas gain traction) actually would serve to detract from any efforts at creating a more support social structure for families. If governments and corporations can argue that formula is just as good, why would they need to support extended maternity leaves and such? Sorry, I’m not willing to so easily give up the idea that moms matter just to coddle some flabby feminist.
Interesting article. I am a second time mom. My older daughter who is now 2 was breastfeed (till 6 months) & formula fed. With my youngest daughter who was born a couple months ago I wanted to try exclusively breastfeeding because of all the guilt I felt last go around at not making it to a year and supplementing too much for convenience. Breastfeeding is going a lot better than last time thanks to the support of my midwife and lactation consult in the early stages (and no thanks to my pediatrician), but still I would agree that breastfeeding is, many times, hard and not as convenient. And yes I do co-sleep and love it and get plenty of sleep. But still. I think the bonding aspect of breastfeeding is the best part. Just like there may not be a difference in the long term health of a baby born naturally vs with interventions, the experience of going through natural, normal labor was personally empowering to me and makes me an advocate of “natural” i.e. unmedicated birth and breastfeeding. No judgment on women whose experience is different–that’s just my experience and perspective for me personally. Also, slightly off-topic but do any breastfeeding moms reading these comments have any advice on dealing with people who are unsupportive of breastfeeding? I love my family & am extremely close with them but since my mother did not breastfeed (wasn’t the norm back then) both she and my father have little understanding of it and are constantly implying that my daughter is “starving” (when she cries) and it would be so much easier to feed her a bottle (when she cries in the car or when I’m struggling to latch her on in an uncomfortable chair at a restaurant, for example). I usually end up getting frustrated and overreacting in these situations and would love to find a better way to deal with breastfeeding nay-sayers without attacking them.
The problem with Ms Wolf arguments can be summed up as thus. First, she she has no credentials in science or medicine but is offering up a scientific evaluation of the breastfeeding studies that contradict what qualified scientists have stated. I don’t consider a women’s studies professor to be someone who is qualified to analyze the breastfeeding research. She selective cherry picks studies that support her view but ignores the meta-analysis done the the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) known as “Breastfeeding, Maternal & Infant Health Outcomes” which, using only reliable studies, concluded that the health benefits of breastfeeding are significant and is the basis for the AAP’s and the government’s promotion of breastfeeding. Unless she can present specific evidence that the AHRQ scientist’s meta-analysis is either flawed or a wholesale fraud then why should I buy her non-scientific evaluation of the research? Second, she engages in a logical fallacy known as “Argument from ignorance”, sometimes expressed as “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”. This fallacy states that simply because you have no evidence to prove something is true does not automatically mean it’s false. That means that even if she is correct that really is a lack of proof that breastfeeding in and of itself is the explanation for the better health outcomes among breastfed babies, that does not prove that it isn’t the true. All that would prove is we simply don’t know the reason for the health better health outcomes among breastfed babies and unless she can provide evidence that backs up any of her alternate possible explanations for the better health outcomes then it’s wrong to assume her explanations are more likely valid then those of the qualified scientists she disagrees with. The fact is that since breastfeeding is natural and time tested while infant formula, much more recent manmade artificial substitute, the onus is on formula defenders to prove formula is close enough to breastmilk rather the other way around. Third, she argues that having most mothers breastfeed as advocated by our government and health groups will have a significant negative impact on women in general. She points to, for example, all the testimonials she has read on the internet from mothers who suffered from horrible motional distress and depression from breastfeeding but I contended that many of these mothers likely lacked good support for breastfeeding and that contributed their distress and depression. The level of breastfeeding support, especially in the medical community, is one of the things we breastfeeding advocates want to improve.
Actually, when breastfeeding didn’t work due to insurmountable challenges (despite obscene amounts of money and time spent working at it), but you’re still told that “breast is best” and “just pump”, people can absolutely make you feel guilty. When strangers feel it’s appropriate to question you about if you’re breastfeeding or not, they can absolutely make you feel guilty as well.
I probably could not be more informed about breastfeeding unless I studied to become a IBCLC. I’m well aware that my child is not the receiving the optimal nutrition she could be. I’m also well aware that there are many people out there who think I was lazy, or stupid, or uniformed, or not committed. I tell my story to those who are so adamant that this is why moms don’t breastfeed longer or at all because there are so many women like me. And all people see is that we didn’t breastfeed. They have no idea why and quite frankly, many of them don’t care.
I think that it is essential we start supporting each other as moms. What’s best for one is not best for all. And if we were a little more open to that concept, perhaps we’d all be a little happier, get along a little better, and stop all this bulls**t mommy wars crap.
My guess is the author has either never had (nor wanted to have) children or formula fed her children. It’s difficult to tell whether she is desparate to soothe her own guilty conscience over formula feeding her own children or just trying to support her twisted feminist theories that breastfeeding demeans women. The studies are clear that breast milk is superior to formula and that a minority of women are getting the support they need to breastfeed. That is the issue…that women want to breastfeed, want to do what’s best for their babies, but do not have the help they need to get past those first few weeks, or the time to pump at work. What America needs is not an article trying to downplay the benefits of breastfeeding, but an article crying out for support of those moms trying to breastfeed their babies.
I definitely do not think that moms that end up formula feeding should be condemned or made to feel guilty, but downplaying the benefits of breastfeeding is not the way to stop it.
@J: I would tell your family that this is your decision. I would educate them on the difference between formula and breastfeeding. Tell them how you feel and that they make you upset with their comments. You should express that your doing the best thing for your child. When she cries it could be for other things like diaper change, needing comfort, gas, etc. If she’s fussy at the latching on at times, she could be just as fussy trying to take a bottle. If she’s gaining weight and has wet diapers then her intake is enough. I’m so glad you had support. I think that is very important that women get that otherwise they won’t continue to breastfeed.
Great article. I made an informed choice to bottlefeed my second daughter. I resent people (ie MilkMade) who would take away my right to chose.
(BTW, Babble you’ve got to do something about the formatting issues with this site. Long blocks of text and really unreadable. You do your audience a great disservice.)
A good article, but so similar to what Rosin wrote a year or two ago, right down to the choice of main expert to rely on. It bears repeating, sure, but why not credit her!
@bfmom, if you read the linked Interview, you’ll discover that the author does have children. it’s more enlightening to see someone engage her arguments, rather than waste time on speculative personal attacks. You may believe the science is “clear,” but the author has spelled out exactly what’s missing in the science.
MilkeMade, your attacks about body weight (“flabby feminest”) are very revealing about your character, motivations, and your views on women and humanity in general.
For all those new moms out there who are tempted to use this article as an excuse to drop their breast feeding, please don’t. I empathize with how painful/stressful/depressing getting going on breast feeding can be. A new mom at 41, I read every book on the subject but never imagined the what kind of commitment trying to feed my own son would demand. I am grateful to those who told me formula isn’t poison so that I could feel somewhat better about feeding him formula when I could not. But I do believe what the Suregeon General says, that breast is best, so I’m even more grateful for finding women who have supported me emotionally and with wise suggestions until I found the right combination (for me it is lots of nursing tea with fenugreek and blessed thistle tinctures). I highly recommend reaching out to your local doula network. They have been a phenomenal source of support to me and many women I now know who weren’t finding the support we needed at the doctor’s office.
ps – I was not able to locate/google the New York Times article the author mentions ‘Breast Feed or Else’
@Sogladmilkmadeisnotincharge
it was a mild “attack” and I do believe that overweight for most is a sign of laziness and lack of a certain fortitude…the same character traits that probably lead a large portion of women to not breastfeed because “it’s too hard” or to say they’re going to “try” or to otherwise whine…whatever happened to being tough and strong? Sitting on your fat ass whining about what you can’t do is very distasteful to me. And, this is whether you are a man or a woman
You know what? Breastfeeding is not a religion, it’s not a cult. It’s just a way to feed your baby. Women have been using breastmilk substitutes and supplements forever – long before scientific formula became commercially available. And if prolonged breastfeeding creates the kind of vicious, judgemental, smug women I have come across in my research on this issue I’m going out to buy a year’s supply of formula right now. The author is spot on when she says the conversation has become toxic – and it’s the BF fascists who are spewing all the poison. I challenge anyone to pick out the child in the playground or the adult in life who was breastfed and the one who wasn’t. Are so many women so desperate to feel superior that they promote this kind of reactionary biological determinism to keep other women in their place – barebreasted, barefoot and breastfeeding in the kitchen?
Hedda – I love what you said about challenging people to pick out the children who were breastfed and those who were not. I think it would be intresting to see a study of adults and whether or not if they were breastfed has anything to do at all to where they ended up in life.
MilkMade – You know what? I made other decisions regarding the care of my son that I believe will have a lot more to do with how he turns out as a person than whether or not he was breastfed. And after what I went through phisically leading up to his birth, *I* did not have the energy or the patience it would have taken to stick with trying to breastfeed. Could other women have done it? I’m sure they could have, but *I* could not. I don’t think that makes me a lazy, horrible parent, though. It just makes me human. Having a happy, sane mommy who formula feeds is more important than having a miserable, frustrated one who breastfeeds any day.
While I am personally an advocate of breastfeeding when it is the right choice for a woman I love how this article critically analyzes advocacy that becomes too strong and overwhelming without the science to back it all up. I believe that mothers can make the best decision for raising and feeding their babies no matter what that may be….
To the author about toxins in the milk, there are toxins in almost every mammal milk along with anything that contains animal fat. It’s due to our environment. Are you saying people should exclude cow’s milk, goat’s milk, etc to their children >1 year for this reason too? Maybe you are against all milk? The benefits of breastmilk doesn’t compare to the risks in formula. I don’t think you know the true science and the complexity behind making breastmilk.
I see, taking a closer look at Wolf’s book, that she actually parallels the issue of obesity and health issues with breastfeeding and health benefits, claiming both are misstated and not science-based. Well, anyone who’s been around any length of time can tell you that you can interpret scientific data in different ways. Looks like she is digging around for ways to interpret the science to suit her own preferences/weaknesses.
I was unable to breastfeed my second child (go ahead, tell me it is because I was lazy, or a feminist, or better yet…..fat?). I personally will never get over the isolation and outright hatred/contempt I have felt from people I know and complete strangers alike. Before my first child was born, I used to think that all mothers supported all mothers–that I was lucky enough to be joining a club the day I gave birth. Sadly, I now know it to be club full of judgmental women who think that just because something worked for them that it will work for everyone that same way and if it doesn’t, you just weren’t trying hard enough.
Thanks for an article. Hope someday there can be an actual dialogue about stuff like this and not just name-calling and scorn.
There is just so much wrong with the things this author is supposing, it’s hard to know where to begin. In the McClean’s interview, she talks about how, for example, someone could go through all kinds of machinations to protect a baby from infection (“make sure that anyone who comes to my house is not sick, that they wash their hands before they handle the baby, and if I dont take my kids to the grocery store when its packed full of people on their way home from work and I sanitize the grocery cart”) that these things could protect just like, or in addition to, breastfeeding. But the same women who don’t breastfeed are also probably the ones who have to put their babies in daycare where they will necessarily be exposed to the germs of the other babies and children and workers, right? Also, what kind of notion is it that we must sequester a baby in a bubble against germs or, use more chemicals–sanitzers–to protect them, when a mother could boost their immunity quite well with breastmilk. But, Wolf doesn’t believe breastmilk is as effective as many say because she just doesn’t want to believe that women actually really DO need to be with their babies when they are young. In her book she talks about the fact that to successfully breastfeed, a woman needs to feed an infant pretty much around the clock for the first several weeks and implies that this is quite an imposition on the mother–which just pretty much leaves me speechless. I mean, what do new mothers expect? That they are going to give birth and a few days later go back to their “normal”, pre-baby lives? No. Babies need their mothers, sorry! Those women who cannot, for physical reasons, breastfeed, should not be harassed or criticized, but the authors assertions, to me, are pretty flimsy in terms of understanding science.
She also talks about how breastfeeding studies don’t have controls, but that is true of the vast majority of nutrition studies. It’s unethical to control for something that could be “detrimental” (like denying people fruits and vegetables to study if they actually really do confer health benefits). She says “..none of the studies have been able to control for the decision to breastfeed. This is to say that mothers who choose to breastfeed usually do so because they have been persuaded that it has health benefits. These are the kinds of mothers who are willing and able to go the extra mile to provide the healthiest environment for their child.” Sadly, I think the subtext of this statement of hers that she doesn’t realize is, yeah, mothers who breastfeed (if they can) ARE actually better mothers because they ARE willing to go the extra mile, and so, breastfeeding can be both a cause of improved health outcomes and a marker of a type of mothering that, in general, leads to improved outcomes. Again, all sympathies to those who can’t breastfeed, but to choose not to, well, I do think that says something about the kind of mother you are.
I actually really like what this author has to say when you read it rather than just looking at it with preconceived ideas. I breastfed my first daughter, and my second is unable to breastfeed due to medical issues. I have chosen to pump for her – but even though those choices may make me look like a “lactivationist”, I strongly believe it’s every woman’s choice to decide for themselves what they want to feed their child – breast or formula, organic vegetables or cheap tinned ones. Breastfeeding is SUCH a divisive topic, it’s crazy really. And one time, someone saw me bottle feeding my daughter (feeding her pumped breastmilk) and she was all like “WHAT – why aren’t you breastfeeding her!?!?!” I told her the situation, that she cannot feed directly so I need to bottle feed her pumped breastmilk. But really, what is it to her anyway? And why should I have to defend myself – especially in my situation where breastfeeding directly is not even a possibility?
“This misguided confidence in breastfeeding stems from our poor understanding of science.”
Ummmmm, couldn’t that be rephrased using ‘formula’ in place of breastfeeding? You are saying people should trust a century of chemically engineered foods to MILLIONS of years of evolution? As far as “scientific” studies go, you do realize that the majority of products produced by the pharmaceutical industry (like prescription drugs, artificial sweeteners, and formula) are funded in large part by the industries that created them, no?
“What they havent found is compelling evidence that breastfeeding causes better health. As the old saying goes, correlation does not equal causation.”
We live in a culture where fewer than 10% of moms breastfeed their children to six months. We also live in a culture where bottle-feeding is the norm. That sentence should have read, ‘What they havent found is compelling evidence that bottle-feeding causes poorer health.’ By your language, you are portraying bottle-feeding as the norm. I’ve read PLENTY of studies that show completely the opposite of what you have stated. When adjusting for socioeconomic factors, formula fed babies are less intelligent, more likely to be chronically sick, and more likely to die from SIDS. Yes, there’s that whole correlation/ causality thing, but there’s been a great rise in the past half-century in things like asthma, diabetes, autism, etc in children- society looks at all sorts of culprits but NEVER looks at how these children were fed as babies as the answer. Just because correlation does not always equal causality does not mean correlation never equals causality, but it DOES mean we should take a closer look and see if there is indeed a connection. Americans like to hear about “one study” that supports their idea, instead of mounds of evidence, both scientific and anecdotal that would prove the contrary. You seem to have found only studies that support your thinking. It’s like arguing evolution to a creationist. I kid you not, there has NEVER been a study that proves marijuana causes increased appetite…. but I digress.
“Unnatural does not necessarily mean unhealthy.”
When speaking of completely stopping a normal biological function in its tracks, yes, unnatural IS unhealthy. Have you read any of the research about the awful long-term side effects of antiperspirant? Cars and refrigeration and birth control pills all have harmful effects on the environment, like toxic gases and male fish with ovaries. That seems unhealthy to me. Women who fail to breastfeed have a 33% increase in breast cancer. So yes, unnatural can equate to unhealthy.
“But what Im against, really, is misinformation and the use of breastfeeding or not breastfeeding to make mothers feel bad about themselves.”
Then focus on the subject at hand. You spend a lot of time discussing how breastfeeding isn’t really all it’s cracked up to be and that formula is just as good for baby.
As a professor of Women’s and Gender studies, you should be well aware of how corporations prey on women’s insecurities to market products. Think douching (for which there is NO medical need and is known to cause pelvic inflammatory disease and increased risk of certain STDs), make-up (which is full of toxins that are known to cause all kinds of bodily harm and all the psychological issues in women that stem from this unachievable beauty standard), or perfumed tampons (which are known to cause reproductive issues but Lord only knows that our girlie bits just need to smell like roses while Aunt Flo is in town). Formula is no different. The formula industry took off in the 1940s, founded on the principle that breastfeeding was immodest, and that some corporate behemoth had a better solution than what God gave us.
“Some women find breastfeeding deeply rewarding, and for them, breastfeeding is the right choice. Others find that formula-feeding works much better, and for them, breastfeeding is the wrong choice.”
I will end with a quote from Amy Spangler- “While breastfeeding may not seem the right choice for every parent, it is the best choice for every baby.”
“While breastfeeding may not seem the right choice for every parent, it is the best choice for every baby.”
That really says it all, doesn’t it? Bravo!
Ms. Wolf also makes the assumption that moms who breastfeed are wealthy germ-a-phobes who are anti-feminist.
I live in poverty- eviction notices and termination notices from the power company are a normal occurrence for me. I don’t want to go back to work until my daughter is walking and talking. This is a crucial period of development in her life. Why would I want to give her chemically processed crap, or hand her to some stranger to feed her for a week while I go on vacation, or for eight hours so I can pull in a meager paycheck?
Ms. Wolf, you seem to assume that motherhood is anti-woman.
If the *MAJORITY* of women fail to breastfeed, and the number of moms who never use formula is so small (less than 10%) then where is this “guilt” coming from? Societal pressure to breastfeed, really? How many formula feeding moms have been asked to LEAVE an establishment for feeding their baby? I’d like to see statistics on how many moms were pressured to formula feed or lacked the support to succeed with breastfeeding from the medical community (this includes having to pay out-of-pocket for IBCLC appointments) in baby’s first few months versus moms who were forced to breastfeed and not given free formula and/or formula coupons in the hospital. Over 90% of new moms are doing something, yet they are made to feel guilty? I’m awfully confused by why this is an issue.
Breast feeding is important since babies below six months are vulnerable because their immunity system hasn’t develop yet, so to speak by breast feeding the mother is protecting her baby by giving the babies immunity through breast feeding.
Finally an article that speaks reasonably about women making personal choices for their own babies, as well as researched facts that are minimally published.
What I’m surprised no one ever talks about is the women for whom breastfeeding is completely unnatural. I tried it and had a visceral “Oh, no, this is not for me” response immediately. So I didn’t. And I didn’t apologize to anyone for it because when asked, I simply told people that it wasn’t the right choice for me. Period.
My 7 year old son is a healthy, vibrant, polite and articulate young man. Every once in a while he does something dumb like eat food off of the cafeteria at school and it never once dawns on me to wonder if it’s because of some food he ate SEVEN YEARS AGO.
ItDoesnotMatter: I guess I would be surprised at a person having zero curiosity or intellectual follow-through to find out WHY you had a visceral “‘Oh, no, this is not for me’ response immediately’” when it really is something that is NORMAL and feeling this way, although everything turning out OK in the “end” (at 7!) indicates something”off” in the psyche. I can understand if someone was sexually abused or had some kind of negative experience, but that might be something you would want to work through before having a child, to at least TRY and address why you’d have this kind of response. It could, of course, just be the extremely shallow and plastic state many Americans are in in current times, though. I guess now it is nothing to feel bad about, what’s done is done, but aren’t you at all curious about what would make you turn away from something you are biologically programmed to do?
Really happy to read this article. I was intent on breast feeding my daughter for at least a year until a month after her birth I had to go to the hospital for a week – during that time she of course was given formula at home and I didn’t have the strength to pump very much. For 2 months after I tried to breast feed but had to supplement with formula until finally I realized I wasn’t able to pump enough to bring my milk supply back up and stopped making myself crazy by trying. I was pretty depressed about it – I felt like I had failed and felt guilty and had trouble seeing other moms breast feed so easily. But after a while I realized it hadn’t made my bond with my daughter any less and now, 2 years later, I see a happy, healthy and smart girl who has never been hospitalized and very rarely (only one cold this year) gets sick even though she’s often around other kids. I’m definitely going to try to breast feed our second that is due soon because I loved doing it with my daughter when I was able to, but I have perspective now to know it’s not the be all end all in raising a wonderful, healthy child and if you can’t do it (or choose not to), please please please do not feel that you have somehow failed. There are a million things you do as a mom to raise a child well and one piece of the puzzle doesn’t change everything (I think things like getting them their shots on time, washing their hands often and letting them feel loved unconditionally are even more important). Hey, I even let my daughter watch Curious George once a day and yet she still loves outdoor play and letting me read her books – I think she’s going to be ok.
For women who cannot breastfeed due to HIV, life-sustaining medications that could harm baby, the rare woman who does not make milk, having a partner who does not currently have a job, there is no reason to feel guilty for using formula. To the woman who is turned off by breastfeeding because she finds it disgusting, distasteful, unnatural (really?!), too difficult…. I question your mental stability and intelligence, and I feel really sorry for your children and the way they will be raised to think of gender. That kind of logic is no different than a woman who feels incomplete if she doesn’t find a husband. Most of the women I’ve seen who are “grossed out” by breastfeeding have no issue having cleavage hang out of a low-cut shirt. It’s so sad to see women so deluded by the confines of patriarchal society.
Wow, I could not disagree more. For starters, history has proven at any given time we don’t know everything about everything, so even IF (and that’s a big if) the science doesn’t support breastmilk as better nutritionally, that doesn’t mean it is not, in fact, superior to formula. Plus, how about the science of touch and attachment involved with breastfeeding? A look at breastfeeding from an evolutionary psychology and science point of view? The fact that nursing allows many women and couples to take advantage of delayed fertility?
Not to mention, this article reeks of misled feminist issues. Breastfeeding doesn’t let men off the hook. My husband feeds our baby a bottle of pumped milk in my absence or at times where I’d like to get a little more sleep at night. He also gets up and brings the baby to me if baby needs to nurse during the night, so I don’t have to fully wake up and leave my warm cozy bed myself. I’m not even going to touch all the other things he can do with our baby that don’t involve feeding. When are we going to get the idea that we, as women, don’t have to do everything the way men do it to be considered just as valuable to society and parenthood? Equal does not mean same-ness in my book.
I really appreciate this article. I look at this issue in the “big picture” kind of way. One of my children had trouble breastfeeding and after two months I quit, and went to formula. I had tremendous guilt about it at first, but then I realized I felt a lot better. My relationship with my daughter improved (because it was a real struggle to feed her before, and it was very stressful), which led to my being able to focus on other things besides being a failure at feeding. I have experienced many volatile feelings from people about formula, which really irritates me, but it shouldn’t be this way. It is every woman’s choice, and formula has proven to be healthy, and it has helped me raise an amazingly smart, healthy (she is never sick) 3 year old. Lets fight about something else.
There are things in breastmilk that formula will never be able to match. Certain nutrients in breast milk, that formula companies have tried very hard to mimic, are just more easily digested by babies. Not to mention antibodies that offer protection in those first six months.
I have a 13 month old, who I am stil breastfeeding. She was born 6 weeks early and was in the NICU for 18 days. I slaved over a pump because she had a terrible time breastfeeding, but she also had a terrible time eating in general. Once she was home I tried and tried to get her to breastfeed. It was stressful, it was hard and made both of us cry. I reached out, I got support, I had friends and family who had been where I was and helped us through.
If you listen to my story, you’re probably thinking, why would you ever continue if it was that hard? It is not easy, it is not always fun, it hurts, it’s stressful, it ties you down, you stain your clothes, you smell like rotting cheese, if you hear a baby cry you’re getting wet, if you cry you’re getting wet, you have to wear a special bra that covers half of your body just for some support, and you feel like your body will never be yours again. Have I sold anyone on doing it yet? This does not even include public opinion or how one is meant to feel when they have to undress in public. I am a huge breastfeeding advocate, but there are times when it can be miserable. Those first 6 weeks are brutal and a learning process for any mother/baby. Would I change anything? Not at all! Now it is so easy and I have a special time each day with my baby that is just for us. She plays with me when she is nursing and we have fun. Although it is a year later, the reward was worth the stress and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
I do not look down on anyone who chooses to formula feed. Some just can’t, due to medical reasons, and they are made to feel guilty and that they are bad mothers. They’re not. For the women who decide breastfeeding is not for them, you’re not bad mothers either. Maybe some women have terribly unsupportive partners. Breastfeeding provides an educational opportunity and a great life lesson. I would argue that this is the second thing, falling behind pregnancy itself, that helps us to become parents. If we give up, what do we learn? What do we teach to ourselves and ultimately our children? It’s not up to science to determine if breastfeeding is the right thing to do. Look into your own heart and forget the experts. Parenting a newborn is about learning your own baby and what works for you. If breastfeeding just isn’t your bag, move on, be thankful you have other options and continue to love that sweet little bundle because ultimately that is what it’s all about.
Hallelujah! As another “professor mom”, who has read many of the original studies, it is so refreshing to finally read a accurate summary of the issues.
When I gave birth to my son 3.5 years ago, I planned to bf for at least a year. But I suffered from severe PPD and struggled with the decision to take the needed medication because the one that I could take and continue to bf was not helping me. I agonized over the decision and at the urging of my supportive and distraught family, took the medication and tried to continue to pump hoping that once I felt better, I could start breastfeeding again. The guilt I felt due to my inability to bf stayed with me for over a year. The PPD did not fully improve for almost 18 months and I never did go back to breastfeeding. My son is very healthy (we bf for 4 weeks) and has never had a stomach bug or ear infection. I am now pg with #2 and hoping to bf, but realizing now that the pressure I feel to do so is so much more caused by what society expects me to do as a “good” mother and not what is best for me as a mom and subsequently, my child and family.
Enough. The bottom-line for me is that formula is highly processed which means chemicals which means, in my mind, crap. I don’t care what the scientists say or don’t say. What I care about is not putting a lot of crap in my children’s bodies. I think we need to analyze to the death what exactly is in formula. Let’s subject formula to highly scrutinized tests and determine what comprises this stuff that people so readily put into their infant children under the belief that it is “good enough”. Really? Than what’s in it? How do they make it? Let’s take a good long, hard look at what we’re comparing here. When the truth comes out about what exactly comprises formula, than maybe we can have this kind of discussion. Until then, I still think you and all other “breastmilk is overrated” folks are full of, in a word, crap.
You’re just giving people yet another excuse to put their own needs first. You had a baby. Breastfeed it. We don’t see women in developing countries finding every excuse under the sun not to breastfeed. Why? Oh, I know, they don’t have a choice but to make it work. Can’t you just see a little gaggle of women out in the desert lamenting the fact that they’re feeling depressed, baby won’t latch and, well, heck, I’d rather go get some exercise than be tied to this baby all day. Yeah. Women are too entitled, imo. Make it work.
I’d like to hear from the women who actually struggled with a difficult but correctable breastfeeding problem who are willing to put their neck out there and say that formula feeding is never the right choice. I’m not talking about sore nipples for 2 weeks: I’m talking women with severe supply issues (5% to 15% of mothers suffer from delayed or failed lactogenesis, hardly the “extremely rare” condition many suggest. source: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/565620_4) or babies who had difficult to correct latch problems, women who had difficulty recovering from a cesarean and had subsequent supply problems, etc. Are those commenters who are suggesting that formula feeding is only the right choice if “medically necessary” women who actually have experience with what breastfeeding challenges really present, or women who really believe that all breastfeeding problems can truly be overcome merely by feeding on demand? Because THAT just isn’t so.
No one who is for breastfeeding is against mother who can’t due to inability or medical issues or whose chances have been ruined by an ignorant society. Also “Breast is Best” was abandoned years ago, because it’s not true. Human milk is standard. It’s what we were designed to grow on, as humans. Cows don’t have the same nutritional requirements and as such, we have to change what’s in their milk so much it’s not recognizable anymore and casein (cow milk protein) is a big infant allergen. Formula is good for babies with galactosemia or who can’t nurse from mom because she’s on medications or for some other reason cannot give her milk. HIV is no longer a factor for people who can gain access to the filter–and the fact that it exists shows the importance of nursing.
Yes, 2% of women are physically incapable of making enough milk to sustain a child and another 5% have medical issues that prevent them from nursing at all. No one looks down on those women. No one.
The people who are looked down on are those who send up a rally cry of “Why bother?” and post articles like this, which are designed to continue the cultural sabotage of nursing in mothers who desperately need the support of their community to continue.
The number one cited cause of women not nursing? Lack of support. So, good job contributing by telling them that what they care about doesn’t matter. You’re right that they shouldn’t feel guilt! The people who should feel guilt are the ones who tell them to just give up rather than helping. The people who spread lies and old wives’ tales and medical misinformation. The people who tell them there’s no benefit to nursing. Those people should feel guilt and a lot of it. After all, it doesn’t have anything to do with YOUR feeding relationship with your child. If someone is asking for help and you respond with, “Don’t worry about it. It’s not that big of a deal anyway,” then you are not a good friend and not a good person, either.
The goal of people who are against formula is to improve access to human milk for mothers who want it and improve the quality of formula for those who need it, not to make anyone feel bad or to take away anyone’s choices. I’d know, since I’m a member of several anti-formula communities. Of course I’ve seen the one or two extremists who don’t think and just bash, but there’s a lot more than one or two extremists who attack nursing moms.
We’re in the MINORITY in the US. That’s not okay. It’s not okay for the children, it’s not okay for the women who want to nurse and it’s not okay if there is ever a water emergency in a community that drags our water quality down to third world status. That’s why so many babies die over there. The water they have access to is poisoning the babies when mixed with the formula that they over-dilute because they couldn’t afford in the first place.
And instead of saying “Women who have to work…” how about you examine the worker conditions in this country. Our parental leave system is the WORST in the developed world. It is atrocious and needs improvement. Why don’t you focus your vitriol against breastfeeding mothers into something constructive, like improving the system that leaves so many women feeling the “guilt” you keep talking about. It’s not the fault of those women, it’s the fault of everyone who looks away and says that we aren’t worth what other women in other countries are worth. Even men have better leave systems than the dads here. What about them? They want to help care for their babies, too! And they can do SO much that doesn’t involve feeding if mom can’t or doesn’t pump. There is no reason for them to be excluded or for women to be sabotaged in their goals, just to make other women feel less ‘guilt.’
First off, I breastfed my son, Im glad I did and after some initial problems we kept it up for 18 months. I completely agree with the writers dislike of some pro-breastfeeding militants who only seem to belittle and upset those who dont breastfeed. Inevitably its those mothers who would dearly love to but who have problems who are the ones most upset by the formula is evil brigade. I also think that some of the benefits that breastfed infants apparently experience when theyre older (health, education, relationships etc) arent necessarily to do with the breast milk. It could be that holding a baby close while feeding them gives off feel-good hormones; mothers who at least attempt to breastfeed are usually the sort of mother who have read and believe that its the best thing for their child. Maybe theyre more likely to be the sort of mum to read with their child, go out for bike rides etc.
My sister in law recently had her second child and didnt even consider breastfeeding will her child have a different start in life to my son? Yes but thats also down to the fact that she has no father figure, doesnt go swimming, will have a different diet etc there are so many variables!
I feel sad when I see some people bottle feeding but this is when I see someone pushing a child in a pram with the bottle in their mouth. Its on the move, theres no physical contact. The joy of breastfeeding for me in the earlier days were that it was a perfect excuse for skin to skin contact, a sit down and a cuddle. Bottle feeding is necessary in some cases (e.g. mothers with HIV, adoptive mothers, babies who are incubated and the mother unable to express etc) but rather than thinking of the milk as magic I hope they think of the contact, the moment of cradling your child and giving them nourishment, warmth and affection as the magic.
Im also a cheapskate and dont understand why the afore mentioned unemployed sister in law went for a product you have to buy rather than a free source of milk thats on tap. And once youre in the swing of it breastfeeding is free even if you buy a pump its infinitely cheaper than buying powdered formula.
I was born in the early 80s in the Caribbean and my mother was advised by her friend to breastfeed because shed had huge problems with formula as the deliveries to the island varied so widely she wasnt able to buy one particular brand and each time she had to change her son had digestive problems. So my mum supported me not as one of the breastfeeding police but as someone whod just given it a go for the sheer convenience of it. Thats what should be promoted as a good reason for at least giving it a go!
Not posting this to start a controversy…just gave me pause.
Sarah I had supply problems, my son wasnt getting back up to his birth weight (this was my main worry not the bleeding, sore nipples) and my health visitor suggested I give him formula after each breastfeed. I also talked to a breastfeeding support working nurse type person (her title escapes me now but she ran the Breastfeeding Support Group at my local hospital) who wasnt an airy fairy hippy she was a no nonsense, Yorkshire 70 odd year old who reminded me of my grandmother. She said if I were to do that Id never be able to breastfeed exclusively so she worked with me on making sure my son was latching on correctly, getting a full feed from both barrels and then pumping after each feed this pumped milk was stored and saved and given once a day for an extra top up this meant my supply increased and my son got a boost. It wasnt moving things along as quickly as my health visitor wanted so I went back to the support lady who said to carry on but add one small bottle of formula each day. With continued breastfeeding, expressing and this one bottle of formula a day my son got bigger quicker. I was able to take the formula away from the days feeds and he carried on growing with just the breastmilk then I eased off slowly with the expressing and he continued to grow and eventually got to a situation where I was able to breastfeed exclusively.
It was the support I received from Joan (the support group lady) and my mother that enabled me to breastfeed. I had my health visitor, husband, my step daughters mother, mother in law etc all saying to just give up and use formula. I dont shout about it being the best way for everyone but its what I wanted to do. So I did. And it worked. My sons perfectly healthy I dont put this down to the milk hes 2 and a half, its also to do with all the activity he has in his life, the love and time he has with friends and family, the balanced diet all of that. Breastfeeding is a small part of my role as a mother.
My breastfeeding story- After a traumatic birth, my daughter was born at 34 weeks. She could not latch until three months of age. I pumped to the point my nipples were cracked, my breasts were bruised. I had NO support, aside from my mother, who had only breastfed full-term babies, never used a breast pump, and was only available by phone. I dealt with postpartum depression, low milk supply in the beginning, pumping up to 15 times a day. When she was born, I realized that my daughter’s needs ALWAYS trumped mine- whatever sacrifice that might entail. The doctors pushed formula on me. They told me I’d “need” it for her to do well. I was told I would not be able to exclusively breastfeed, but I did anyway. Maybe I’m strong willed. I take my job as a mother as the SINGLE most important job I’ll ever have in life. My daughter has blown the bell curve for growth. For the record, ADOPTIVE MOTHERS CAN BREASTFEED, (yes, I meant to yell that, because I’m “udderly” sick of hearing they can’t) it just takes a lot more work (many resources are available at the La Leche League website). Shame on you, Ms. Wolf, for doing a disservice to all the women who desperately want and try to breastfeed and quit due to lack of support by crying “Breastfeeding isn’t really worth it!” OK, my job here is done.
Thank you for this article Ms Wolf. I had always planned to breast feed, but when my daughter was born my milk simply failed to come in. I was one of those women with an ideal situation – access to some time off, a private office I could lock to pump when I went back to work, family who supported breastfeeding, etc. I was also lucky enough to have a great OBGYN and wonderful lactation consultants. All of whom did their best to help me increase my supply beyond the weak .4 (not 4, .4) ounces a day my body produced at best. It was not too be. And my daughter is healthy, strong, and outperforms all the kids in her class so her cognitive development has not suffered.
I was dismayed to find that when I tried to reach out for help from other mothers, I was often accused of either being a liar or not having tried hard enough. Or I got a creepy sort of back-handed sympathy that came across like ‘well, in your case formula is okay; too bad your kid will be diseased and dumb though’. It makes me glad to see articles like yours though I’m sure some of the comments here reflect my experiences looking for support.
To those who seem to be all about the quote regarding how breastfeeding may not be the best choice for every parent but it’s the best choice for every baby, keep in mind tht you could probably replace “breastfeeding” with any number of things: a stay at home mom, a two parent household, an organic diet, etc. Are all of you who are on the breastfeeding bandwagon willing to agree with these other statements too? Because I’m sure there are plenty of studies that prove those things. I may not breastfeed, but I made other choices and sacrifices for my child that I’m sure not all of you made, but I’m not going to question your parenting ability or womanhood because of it. Some of you who have commented here are really snotty, rude women. Get over yourselves, and your boobs.
Oh, I TOTALLY would agree with all those other things you listed, and more, Amanda. Although the science is, in fact, less solid on organic diet and it’s more dependent on what food items you’re talking about some it’s more beneficial to be organic, others it’s a wash. At the end of the day organic is probably better for the environment.
As someone who has two terrifically healthy, smart, caring girls, neither of whom were breastfed, I can testify to good parenting=making a good choice for the whole family.
It’s just basic biology. What other mammals use formula? Convenience and health concerns are a separate issue and shouldn’t be included in the argument about what is “best”
Ugh. So many of the comments here make me just want to stop reading Babble. Who are you rude, self-righteous women who know what is best for everyone? Why do you presume that if something worked for you, it would work for everyone else and if it doesn’t, those people are just lazy and selfish? The way you berate other women is indicative of the people you are and that type of attitude will be far more toxic for your children than formula ever could be!
Mothers need to do what is best for them, what will make them the happiest, most loving and involved mothers they can be. If that means breastfeeding, great. If not, that’s great too.
Successful parenting is so so much more than breastfeeding. I can only hope that some of you get humbled somewhere along the line.
This is embarrassing to read some of these comments. Women need to support each other no matter what and here we are splitting hairs over something that is a choice. We all believe in choice right? Stop bashing each other and put some trust in the human race that we are all doing the best that we can with the info we have at the time. There are too many factors influencing children these days making it practically impossible to tease apart what CAUSES what. Don’t judge until you walk a mile in someone elses shoes.
Brain Farts – You obviously have a lot at stake in defending your decision to breastfeed at all costs. Congratulations on your success. However, your suggestion that mothers in similar situations who decide to stop after going through all those things are not putting their babies first and not taking their jobs as mothers seriously is ridiculous and unfair. Many women make the decision to stop in the interests of being a BETTER mother – a mother who is not depressed, not crying incessantly, not constantly hooked up to a pump, not completely obsessed with her aching, infected breasts, and, above all, not able to truly enjoy and bond with her baby the way she wants. In my opinion, the absolute best thing a mother can do for her baby is to take care of her own mental, emotional, and physical health – sacrificing those things on the alter of breastfeeding is not a sacrifice I would ever encourage a struggling new mom to make. This article supports the notion that the benefits of breastmilk do not outweigh the benefits of having a mother who is not depressed and suffering.
Texas A & M prof explains her new book…
Bravo! Thanks so much, Joan, for being a voice of reason, and for being so brave to take this on. To all those who see breastfeeding as the only way to be a good mother, because it’s “natural,” please give up all your modern possessions and go live in a cave. That’s natural, too.
The lack of intellectual rigor in some of these comments is staggering…
Sarah–bad latch, weak suck, blood blisters, flat nipples, severe ptosis since I grew breasts, over-sized breasts, engorgement that caused my nipples to disappear, baby’s refusal to latch, screaming and arching at being put into position to eat, baby with serious GI issues (which formula would have made a thousand times worse), overactive letdown, damaged baby bond, PPD and baby who could barely stay awake while I was alone caring for her and her two year old sister for 11 hours a day with no ability to leave the house. Is that ‘serious’ enough? Or would you prefer to talk to my friend with true low supply who uses a lact-aid to give her supplement at the breast with every drop of milk she makes? Because she and women like her were my inspiration as I tackled issue after issue to protect my poor baby with her pained tummy. It would have been easier to give her a bottle… for me. For her, with the sensitivities she had in the beginning (that thankfully have been outgrown), it could have caused her permanent medical issues. Or maybe it wouldn’t have mattered. It was only seven weeks of my life struggling through that. I mostly only remember it clinically now. While I was miserable and it seemed like it would last forever–it didn’t. If it hadn’t been for the online community support I had and the LC in the hospital, there’s no way I would have made it and very few people would have blamed me. I certainly don’t blame anyone who hasn’t been able to after going through that. I do blame our society for not helping most of them, though. Some get help and really just have to quit to be a good mother. Others have no access to help. And finally, there are people who are so busy patting themselves and each other on the back for not even trying that the women feel even more alone and abandoned by their sisters, neighbors, friends, mothers, etc.
The lack of overall understanding of the author’s message in many of these comments is what is staggering (not to mention the lack of basic human compassion). Her point (to beat a dead horse) is not that women shouldn’t breastfeed or that breastfeeding isn’t a good thing for babies. It’s that breast milk is not the panacea it is made out to be and women shouldn’t be berated or ostracized or made to feel like they are harming their babies if they can’t or don’t breastfeed. Get off your “intellectual” high horse and leave it alone. It is not your business how someone else feeds her baby. Period.
Kind of sad that so many women seem to have their self-worth wrapped up in breastfeeding. The silliest part of all of these is that we are talking about such a small period in a child’s life.
I don’t think anyone thinks anyone should be berated for their physical inability to breastfeed and I think that all the seemingly “pro breastfeeding”/”anti-Joan Wolf” commenters said as much. Just because people shouldn’t be harassed or berated does not really justify dummying down or twisting “science” around, or trying to take something that is “normal” down a few notches. All the “but my kid turned out fine” and the “my kid doesn’t get sick and her breastfed cousin does” comments and the tales of woe about breastfeeding problems, though, do not really address anything scientific or transferable to the human population writ large for policy purposes…and that’s what I mean by lack of intellectual rigor. Feed your baby how you wish, but it just looks petty and ridiculous to try and say that breastfeeding is not the “norm” (or as some would say “best”).
@Brainfarts, regarding your comment about adoptive breastfeeding: “For the record, ADOPTIVE MOTHERS CAN BREASTFEED, (yes, I meant to yell that, because I’m “udderly” sick of hearing they can’t) it just takes a lot more work (many resources are available at the La Leche League website).”
I’ll feel free to cut and paste what I’ve posted before. “Many people adopt because they are infertile. One of the major causes of infertility is one that ALSO pretty much dooms adoptive breastfeeding before the mother even gets started. And even many adoptive mothers who manage to get milk through induced lactation don’t get much more than a few drops. The most successful adoptive breastfeeder I’ve personally known wasn’t able to fully meet her child’s needs until he was eating solids. So, yes, most of his infancy diet was formula, which he received through a tube taped to her breast.
You might argue. as many have, that even a little breast milk is a huge victory. But the trouble with that is that some recent research that the main PROVEN benefit of breastfeeding (the protective effect of breastmilk against GI infections in the baby) is lost unless the baby ONLY receives breastmilk. Formula supplementation appears to negate this benefit.
And there is another issue, relating to what is “natural.” One of the main induction methods involves taking domperidone, an anti-nausea drug used in cancer patients. Domperidone IS excreted in breast milk and it DOES have side effects.
If you still think it is worth it, then it will be your choice to try next time you adopt a child.
All I can say is that breastfeeding has nothing to prove. Formula makers are the ones that need to do all of the proving. Our bodies are made to create, birth and feed babies. Man has decided that they can compete with that. Okay. Prove it. Breastmilk has been doing what it has always done since time began. I want to see the formula companies prove to me that what they make can compete with that. The onus should be on the pretender, not the original.
Oh, and @ “stopyerwhinin,” you had this to say: We don’t see women in developing countries finding every excuse under the sun not to breastfeed. Why? Oh, I know, they don’t have a choice but to make it work.
In reality, women with breastfeeding problems exist all over the world. They may have access to formula. They may have some other homemade means of supplementation, which may or may not be successful. They may have nursing friends or relatives who will help them – in other words, a wet nurse. OR, their babies may die.
I BF for 5 months, than my son went on nursing strike,i pumped for 2 months, but then we were moving to another state, so started pumping less,did not have time for pumping, as a result dried up. Starting 7 months my son is formula fed, and every time I give him bottle I feel so bad. I think you cant compare breastmilk which is specially formulated for babies and formula which is artificial and who knows what they put in it. I eat organic food, lots of vegetables and fruit,healthy grains etc. I am sure my little one would benefit more from my breastmilk if he still nursed.
By the way, according to some studies,soy in formula can make boys homosexual, why dont formula manufacturing companies warn people about that?
I think the author bottle fed her children and her article is her way to justify herself, I kind of understand her, i feel guilt everytime I give my LO a bottle, I try to calm myself by saying it is not that bad and so on.
But recently I read that BF boys have higher IQ than FF boys. It really upset me.
Brain Farts – You ask where this pressure to breast feed comes from… are you kidding me? From self righteous, mean women like you. I don’t know why you’re concerned about people putting formula in their children when I can only assume you’re poisoning your own with your nasty attitude.
What?! “By the way, according to some studies,soy in formula can make boys homosexual, why dont formula manufacturing companies warn people about that?”
I honestly thought I had heard it all on the BF/Formula topic, but this is a new one. Sweet jeebus, help us all.
As someone who breastfed because it was easy for me and my baby was a good nurser, blah blah blah, I can’t help but feel some vitriol in articles like this. It’s not like the breastfeeding rate in the U.S. is all that staggering – in fact it’s really quite low. Ever since I nursed I have felt a growing animosity towards breastfeeding in general – either with these accusations that we think we’re superior, or with the advent of contraptions designed to hide babies from the world when they’re nursing. I really don’t get it.
You Americans are freaks. You have one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the developed world (thanks, in part, to your positively antediluvian maternity leave laws) and so many of you are seeking excuses not to do it. Fact: artificially fed babies are statistically sicker, fatter and dumber than breastfed babies. What more do you need?
I agree. What we need is honest information about both types of feeding, so parents can choose. But depicting breastfeeding as a sacrifice is not quite right either. (the middle way can be very narrow
). One reason I choose breastfeeding is for the ‘health benefits’, although, like you, I have my doubts and sometimes wonder what exactly I’m feeding my child when I myself am consuming pollutants. But another very important reason for me to breastfeed is that it’s so practical. Once the first few days are over I find it so easy to be able to feed my babies without bottles,hot water, formula and sterilizer. A night feed is over within minutes, or I just sleep through it. When I’m not sure if baby is hungry I just try, if he’s not hungry I didn’t prepare the bottle for nothing and I don’t have to throw away a perfectly good bottle of milk. It’s even easier when you’re on the road. Extracting milk once or twice on a work day is a small price to pay for the freedom breastfeeding gives me when I’m home with my baby. I DO sometimes feel that it’s not quite’fair’ that only mummy has to breastfeed, but my husband can’t help that either.Being a mum and being a dad is not the same and bottle feeding is not going to change that, so I just try to go with the hand that mother nature has dealt me.
Old bag – While breastfeeding may be commonplace in whatever country you’re from, I guess good manners are not. Breastfeeding doesn’t make people nicer or capable of civil debate, apparently…
“Brain Farts – You obviously have a lot at stake in defending your decision to breastfeed at all costs. Congratulations on your success. However, your suggestion that mothers in similar situations who decide to stop after going through all those things are not putting their babies first and not taking their jobs as mothers seriously is ridiculous and unfair.” Really, I said that? I was only speaking for myself, and that comment about my own BF experience was in regard to @Sarah, who asked if there were moms who overcame serious medical obstacles and still managed to exclusively BF. We are the ones who need support the most, and an article such as this one does a disservice to the women who need extra support in making their BF relationship succeed, by stating that mama’s milk ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. ****** “Brain Farts – You ask where this pressure to breast feed comes from… are you kidding me? From self righteous, mean women like you. I don’t know why you’re concerned about people putting formula in their children when I can only assume you’re poisoning your own with your nasty attitude.” Sorry that stating the FACTS and sharing my own personal experience (in response to @Sarah’s post a page or two back on the comments) equates to having a nasty attitude in your mind. You cannot argue that formula puts your child at risk of all kinds of diseases and increases their risk of SIDS. I’m sorry pointing out the elephant in the room equates to a bad attitude or being mean. I never once spoke ill your ability to be a parent. I only shared my own experience, and my own beliefs. I will state again that less than 10% of American moms exclusively breastfeed. I have yet to hear of a mom who was asked to leave an establishment for formula feeding her child. Please point out to me where I was self-righteous, and then your personal attacks might have some merit. ****** As for “Anon” in regards to my comment about adoptive mothers- It CAN be done. I didn’t say it can ALWAYS be done. I am just stating that it is a complete fallacy to say it CANNOT be done. There are many stories of adoptive mothers who successfully breastfed. But it is indeed true that a good number of adoptive mothers have no option but to formula feed.
So where are the “science” and “intellect” police when you get comments such as these?
“according to some studies,soy in formula can make boys homosexual” (Wow. There really are no words.)
or
“Artificially fed babies are statistically sicker, fatter and dumber than breastfed babies” (not really a scientifically rigorous statement – and one that, once again, overstates the evidence and confuses correlation with causation – oh, and is completely lacking in civility or compassion).
The nastiness is appalling. These types of comments and others on this thread are why breastfeeding advocates are accused of thinking they are superior. I haven’t seen a single comment from someone who couldn’t or didn’t breastfeed making these kinds of nasty statements about women who do.
Yeah, well, both sides are showing their stupidity at this point, I have to agree…
What? You didn’t get the news that soy formula turns boys gay? I thought I’d add that breastfed female babies are all going to become lesbians later in life because they spent their infancy sucking on the breast. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Thought we could all use a little cynicism/ humor. I think at this point, anything anyone says that is pro-BF will be misconstrued as “elitist” or “mean” while the moms of artificially fed babies are just going to use the same circular arguments for why they used formula. No one with more than half a brain who is pro-BF has anything against women who CANNOT breastfeed. We are just in favor of getting the FACTS out there about the toxic and explosive chemicals used to manufacture formula and the atrocities the formula industry has been a part of, improving support networks for moms who want to BF, stop the medical community from handing out free formula to every new mom, improving maternity leave laws, access to a place to pump or breastfeed at work, that the WHO says very clearly that formula is to be used as a LAST resort….. and to put an end to the stupid idea that breastfeeding is just a burden tethering women to be nothing more than a milk machine, standing in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant.
Just want to say that no one should be feel justified in making nasty comments against mothers who CHOOSE NOT to breastfeed for whatever reason, either. (and, for the record, I am someone who is pro-breastfeeding and who tried very hard – endless hours with lactation consultants, appointments with chiropractors, cranial sacral therapist, pediatric occupational therapist – to make it work, but ended up making a very difficult and sad decision to stop when my son was eight weeks old because his jaw was extremely tight and I was in excruciating pain and he was unable to nurse effectively).
Also, a lot of the nastiness in the comments surrounds what the meaning of CANNOT is and the lengths certain people think women should go to breastfeed.
Support and policies that promote breastfeeding are certainly needed, and there is every reason to try to help women be more open to trying it and more support to help them continue. But there shouldn’t be such scorn for women who decide to stop or not do it at all for whatever reason.
The title of this article is misleading – I don’t think there is really any argument that breastmilk is preferable to formula. The issue that the article takes up is the extent of that superiority, as shown by scientific studies. The studies show that many of the claims of the superiority of breastmilk inflate the benefits of breastmilk and mistake correlation for causation. Breastmilk is best, but formula is not poison and is a viable and healthy means of feeding babies. And, aside from the milk itself, the other benefits of breastfeeding (skin-to-skin contact, eye contact, bonding, cuddling) can be attained from bottle-feeding too.
I breast fed till 15 months supplementing with organic formula starting at 10 months due to low production caused by postpartum hypothyroidism. Unfortunately the formula I used stopped being imported into Canada. We then had to pick a new brand… all which are available have DHA made by Martek. Making these DHAs creates Hexane, a nasty toxic byproduct. Damned if you do, damed if you dont.
There are a few good points in this article, mainly about education.
I agree with Old Bag completely.
You can still buy Nature’s One from the US site or Amazon, just shipping and customs is REALLY expensive. Most everything else is either life’sDHA or Martek though. bleh.
Hmmm. Interesting stuff.
@”brainfarts”: I’m afraid most of the “many stories of adoptive mothers who successfully breastfed” generally involve babies who received far more formula than breastmilk in their first six months.
This is one of those hot-button issues (see also: cloth diapering) that seem to serve no purpose other than dividing people who should be fighting on the same side. In countries in which pretty much everyone has access to clean water and basic modern medicine (and from which, I’m guessing, all the commenters on this site are drawn), the marginal health benefits of breastfeeding are surely negligible. (I say this as someone who breastfed for 18 months, because we were lucky enough to make it work.) Now, if you were a mother in sub-Saharan Africa, you’d have a real argument. But this infighting among mothers who are wealthy relative to most of the rest of the world is truly obscene. Shouldn’t we rather band together to help women and babies for whom breastfeeding really *is* a life-and-death issue? Or if they’re too abstract, how about working together to fight for things that women in our countries really need, like post-partum support, a proper social safety net, and quality childcare and education?
eskimum, if these selfish ladies can’t even be bothered to stretch themselves or work to feed their own babies breastmilk, do you *really* think they’re going to do anything for women in subsaharan Africa? anyway, the irony is that women in poor places necessarily breastfeed, unless of course they are robbed, too, of this by companies like Nestl’ and such
Babble.com
While I don’t agree with Wolf, in that, breastfeeding is ‘barely’ better than formula, I do agree that mothers need to STOP FEELING GUILTY, no matter what their choices. My son was born with a tongue tie and couldn’t nurse, we fed him formula for 3 days, waiting for my milk to come, finally it did, then he refused to latch. I worked with him 10 times a day for 5 weeks while pumping 10 times a day. He finally got it. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. I did it (and he is now 6 months, still exclusively nursing) because I was going to be a stay at home mom, and to me, not only is the “breast best”, but it is also, more convenient and cost effective for my situation. HOWEVER, I would never never never tell another woman who went though what I did (the blisters lasted for another month, I have had periods of thrush, and still, now with his teeth, it doesn’t feel very good), that she was doing wrong by her child. Certainly breast is best (especially in the precious first weeks), but if a mother’s milk doesn’t come in fast enough (mine took 7 days) or your child can’t latch (again, it took him 5 weeks of constant struggle with nipple shields, etc), then we are blessed to have the nutrition of formula. I have been through the struggle and have friends who just simply could not produce no matter how hard they tried — how dare we tell these wonderful mothers and nurturers that they are poor mothers because their bodies couldn’t produce? Anyways, just wanted to voice my support for Wolf though I think we (in the U.S.) must be further educated on at least trying in the hospital, and nurses in the delivery rooms (thankfully, I had supportive home birth midwives) who don’t just shove a bottle in the babies face (my sister is a nurse and sees this every day). Pediatricians and nurses must emphasize the benefits of breastmilk (Kdub emphasized this very clearly and succinctly without sounding judgmental.) Blessings. (My story is found on my blog: http://amyelizabethsmith.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/my-breastfeeding-journey/ )
Sorry for your difficulty, but someone should have told you, or you should have learned beforehand that milk often doesn’t come in for 7 days. Babies are born with the wherewithal to wait it out and they get colostrum first before the milk comes in.
Technology is great…we ought to use it when it helps. Natural processes are inherently better…we ought to prefer that. Extenuating circumstances exist…we ought to flex when needed. If possible, use the breast. If not possible, use formula.
When breastfeeding, avoid pre-processed food…the baby eats what you do. Nothing like smelling garlic on the breath of a 3 month old because my wife ate spaghetti the night before.
Interesting. Again, I’m not anti-breast feeding, just looking at the evidence and realizing that formula is not abuse. When you factor in my very Western diet, environmental containments, and a lifetime of being medicated for RA (and the fact that I need to start up those meds again SOON), things are evening out.
Not breastfeeding also increases the risk of SIDS and of respiratory infections, such as pneumonia. A recent article on CNN reports that in the United States, 911 infant deaths annually could be prevented by breastfeeding. Does this make it statistically likely that your formula fed baby will die? No, but it clearly demonstrates the risk you are taking. Not to mention that nursing is about more than just the transfer of calories and nutrients.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/05/breastfeeding.costs/index.html
While I did it for 22 months, most propaganda is Overkill9000, a cornucopia of guilt trips, magical thinking and poor understanding of risk analysis. Example: formula “kills” 900 babies a year in the US. But how many would die if formula did not exist?
Thanks, Joan, for writing this. I like being reminded not to feel guilty for my choice to formula feed. Having to defend my decisions over and over again to naysayers gets me into an insecure place.
I was molested for 9 years, breast feeding is pure physical/psychological torture for me. Formula feeding, along with pumping, have helped me while I work through therapy to reconcile with my past. To any of you ladies out there who are quick to judge formula feeders, please consider that not everyone is capable of breastfeeding, and their reasons are not yours to pass judgment on. Like others have said, have some flexibility and compassion for both breast and formula feeding moms. There isnt any need to attack.
This article is APPALLING. I get TONS of traffic on my blog by villainizing formula. And here you go citing evidence to the contrary! And you cited actual studies, rather than just links to other sites that do not themselves even cite studies which is what I do on MY blog, to back up your points! This is terrible!
Coura, thefeministbragger.blogspot.com
Yep, still Mother to Mother infighting much to the delight of the formula companies. It is the failure to see the “big picture” with regards to the health costs of not BF. Of course babies who are formula fed in “western cultures” are happy and relatively healthy as babies, but they fail to measure the long term health of people as well as the long term effects of going against the biological norms ie: BF, birthing practices etc. on us as a species. Yes lots of technology isn’t natural like some of the examples she has listed, but who is saying that over use of those things isn’t a huge problem as well. These are the same things that also stop people from living close to one another interacting, learning from each other by watching and supporting each other one on one. One of the biggest problems with breastfeeding challenges.
Anyway I think women should feed their babies whatever way they “need” to but the original article has turned into a fight as it was destined to and quite possibly might have been intended to.
Mothers who failed to get adequate help with a BF challenges and struggle or women who chose not to BF for whatever reason are unburdened of their own guilt when an article like this is published, so good they don’t feel guilty anymore and a bunch of BF moms get labeled as lactivists whether they are or not.
There are countless examples of BF mothers who are judged and subjected to “ignorant” and insulting opinions all the time, perhaps Joan can do some sort of article on that side of the coin just to have a balanced representation on the argument. Why is it that BF mothers don’t feel the need to defend themselves to the same degree and in the same numbers?
And I agree if you are going to site medical studies include the links so people can access them right away.
i’m a breastfeeding mother and have no intention of stopping anytime soon, bf is not “the holy grail” in my mind however imagine the “perfect” food which is free, non allergenic (more and more children are develpoing allergies) and won’t cost the earth because it does not involve herding thousands of cows. when on the perfect nutrition of breast milk you can drastically reduce the chances of your baby becoming ill because their body is not struggling to digest cows milk which while science has made formula as close to breast milk as possible the result is usually a constipated, aometimes irritable baby.
every mother has the right to choose but not the right to judge others, i personally would encourage mothers to bf because it IS better than the formulas, nature tells us this because it was designed by nature to be our childrens first food and no matter how hard we try we will never be able to replicate it because we won’t be able to put LIVE antibodies into powdered milk it’ll kill the cells.
a scientist said that breast feeding made a child more intelligent than normal but a woman i know said “breast fed children are normal, it’s the formula fed children that are slightly behind” i think she was right, better food equals better brain but this isn’t to say that a formula fed child will not be bright or that a breastfed child will not struggle.
mothers need to stop in fighting, this is not a war this is parenting and while there’s no right or wrong answer there is a line and this article and many people over step it.
Love your baby, care for him/her as best as you can and they will survive either way all a person can do is the best that they can.
Which is “better”, the heart you were born with or the man created artificial heart? Which is better, the arm you were born with or the prosthetic arm created in a laboratory? Which is better, the hormones your body produces for you, or man-created hormones? Which is a better way to meet your nutritional goals, eating a healthy diet or taking factory produced vitamins?
This is such a silly argument. In every mammal we can observe in nature, the female in the species produces milk for the infant she bears. Analyzing each species’ milk finds that the milk is specific to what the infant requires (ie., blue whales produce milk that is up to 50% fat to help newborn whale calves to gain weight quickly and produce blubber for warmth before it is time to travel to colder waters.) Why would we think anything we could produce in a lab, especially where profit is the motive, is better in any way than what our body was designed perfectly to produce and deliver?
I think the real problem lies in the TOTAL sexualization of the female breast, pushing breast feeding to the status of ugly step-sister, when it should actually be the other way around. I think we can also look to nature in ths area. No other species has a breast as beautifully aesthetic as the human breast, but that is the BONUS not the purpose.
Again, no one is saying formula is better than breastmilk. The point is that the extent of breastmilk’s superiority, as shown in the scientific studies, is not as great as it is often claimed to be and formula is a viable and healthy option, and therefore, how a woman feeds her baby should not be used to attack, berate, belittle, or make her feel like she is a bad mother who is harming her baby. Why is that message not getting through?
There has been a lot of talk about how what is “natural” is superior when it comes to babies. I wonder how those of you who feel so adamantly about that feel about things like IVF treatments that result in multiples, surogacy, single women and homosexual couples who use sperm or egg donors to have kids, etc. Just curious.
LK the message probably isn’t getting through because of the way this article has been written, it’s never been something that has bothered me although i think every woman should give breastfeeding a go. As a person a nutrition freak i have done extensive “studies” of my own. you are correct in saying that formula is a viable option and it is certainly better than putting a baby on straight cow or goat milk but the fact remains fact breast feeding is a lot better for your baby (you can tell by their poo actually a bf baby has very loose watery yellowish poop while a formula fed baby will get rather grey and clumpy) the fact that formula changes this so drastically can not be a good thing so it isn’t as good for them and has also now been proven to increase the chances of a child having allergies because before the age of 12 months babies are really a bit young for cows milk. having said this sometimes formula is necessary and no it isn’t poison. for example a mother with HIV won’t give her baby (if they where not infected before birth) by formula feeding them where as the risk is there if she breastfeeds.
it’s basically the pacifier argument again so the bottom line is if you don’t want to don’t then, if you want to try give it your best shot and NIETHER SIDE comment. if you don’t agree with it too bad it’ll happen anyway and sometimes it’s just better for a womans head to use a bottle. i breastfeed i will always breastfeed it’s my peroggative out of my friends with kids i’m the only one who has managed to breastfeed exclusively if at all but it’s not up to me or anyone else to say that she’s a “bad mother” that it’s a “cop out” or anything else should a woman choose not to. there are far worse things that a parent can do than bottle feed a child, so people should pick something else to be paranoid about. try smoking around kids!
Wow. I read this article with great hopes of softening my “breast is best” attitude, unfortunately reading this did not help me to achieve this. As a feminist, I struggle with the sadness that I feel when I meet moms who feed babies formula. Not liking this about me, I eagerly awaited for the A-HA moment in this article. It just never came. (————New paragraph)—————-
It started out well with the notion that the evidence for breastfeeding being superior to feeding formula is overstated. Unfortunately, the article then took a turn for the worst by then condescending about ‘poor understanding of science’ and mothers wanting to be all powerful. These two ideas alone, for me, diminished my hopes. But then, it actually got worse! Each paragraph made me cringe. Wolf agrees that thousands of studies concur that breastfed babies are healthier but cannot herself, see the correlation. Well, that is what science is: studies, examines and make theories based on patterns and statistics. Furthermore, when comparing the two liquids, breastmilk is LIVE and changing to fit the needs of the baby and while many attempts have been made CANNOT be replicated by corporations. Ice cream and yogurt are both delicious and creamy but there is no way one could not deny the health benefits of yogurt. Finally, “Breastfeeding has real costs”. WOW! Just wow! Emotional distress and depression? Blogs full of testimonials – um yeah, am I the only one who noticed that people generally write when things are there are issues and not when things are going as they should. Also, while there may be thousands of testimonials teeming with distress, there are MILLIONS who have been paying the price for the REAL misunderstanding of the superiority of breastmilk. Think about the African-American community for whom breast feeding is abysmally because you ‘look poor’ or for countries where families have been convinced to buy formula even though they can’t afford it. Those are costs which affect many, many more than thousands with depression.—————–(new paragraph)——— I found the determination to avoid all risks as a reason why some people breastfeed to be mostly irrelevant. The article was condescending too and it could easily be misconstrued as, “mothers breastfeed because they don’t understand science or just how safe formula really is”. What on earth? But it is the last sentence that engulfed me with jaw-dropping gaul: “We need to stop making claims that breastfeeding is the only choice for mothers who care about their children”. What a statement! Talk about overstating the obvious. While I cringe when I see formula being fed to babies, I don’t think, “Well, there is another woman who doesn’t care about her child”. Wow, just wow. I will say this though, Wolf deserves credit for an attempt to bring mother’s closer together around this issue. I applaud her efforts.
@Amanda Feb 8, 2:47 PM
I think all of those things are not great, either.
@Nicole Rowan–yes!!!!!!
Brain Fart says: “Ms. Wolf also makes the assumption that moms who breastfeed are wealthy germ-a-phobes who are anti-feminist. I live in poverty- eviction notices and termination notices from the power company are a normal occurrence for me. I don’t want to go back to work until my daughter is walking and talking. This is a crucial period of development in her life. Why would I want to give her chemically processed crap, or hand her to some stranger to feed her for a week while I go on vacation, or for eight hours so I can pull in a meager paycheck?”
My guess is living in poverty is far more damaging to a child’s future potential than being formula fed. Yet we formula-feeders are not judging your situation — in fact, I find myself feeling compassion despite all of your harsh comments. Why can’t you do the same for woman unable to (or choose not to) breastfeed?
Interesting article…
The obvious answer is “duh!” Of course it is best, health wise. It is the way our ancestors thrived and it is specially designed for our children. That said, if mom can’t pump or the baby has severe food allergies or even mom doesn’t want to do so, it is nice that we now have synthetic formulas instead of the mashes and gruels that children might not even survive on, as they did all through history when a wet nurse wasn’t available.
Now if only formula was regulated as a medical supplement rather than food product, and if companies in America were forced to not advertise and be WHO compliant then maybe the consequences of formula feeding would be more equivalent. We should stop having the breastmilk versus formula war and simply support breastfeeding as a society norm but ALSO improve substitutes to make them safer and healthier for babies – which means our government and doctors need to stop taking “gifts” from formula companies and truly research what is being sold to feed our infants!
Personally I breastfeed and I would feed my babes organic goat’s milk and flash pasteurized donor milk over formula if I needed to supplement – but if formula was held to a higher health standard and better regulated then I might rethink it as an infant food source! Right now most formula companies are far too profit driven and untrustworthy…
Interesting article.
Bravo Joan!! Finally, a well-reasoned article on breastfeeding vs. formula feeding. Keep them coming.
Im says “My guess is living in poverty is far more damaging to a child’s future potential than being formula fed.” Wow, what an ignorant statement. Yeah, a $600 stroller is necessary for success in life. I read to her, play with her, hold her all the time, talk to her, etc. I know plenty of wealthy parents who can’t even be bothered to do any of that, and hire a nanny from the moment baby comes home from the hospital. If you’re going to make a loaded statement like that, elaborate a bit, back it up with evidence.
I didn’t say anything about a $600 stroller. But you can’t tell me it’s better for a child’s long-term well-being to live in poverty with the constant threat of electricity being disconnected than not living in poverty and being formula fed. It’s a fact that impoverished children are at an alarming disadvantage. Read this: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/poordevelopment/
I’m sorry for your situation, but perhaps you shouldn’t be so mean and judgmental. That can’t be good for your kid either.
I have three children. The first is almost 4 years old and I breast fed him for 9 months. It cost me a whole lot in terms of emotional health. I am glad I stuck it out, because it was good for him and good for our wallet.
A year ago I found out I was pregnant with twins. I decided to breast feed them for 12 weeks, and then move onto formula. It was the only logical choice for me.
Thank you for writing this.
I am so with you. I think that the studies that claim breastfeeding as the reason of the difference fail to account for other circumstances that are often different. I know that everyone doesn’t always fit the ‘average’ but when you’re looking at studies like this that is what they look at. I have a friend who’s breast fed 5 kids who are literally constantly sick, like trips to the hospital sick. Whereas I formula fed 3 kids who bring home the occasional annoying illness from school. Breastmilk is not magic. Good parenting and common sense can over come many many things
This is very interesting. I’m a breastfeeding mom, but I do see guilt placed on women for not breastfeeding (and also for breastfeeding too long). I don’t get why anyone thinks it’s their business.
I had a hard time breastfeeding, went to a lactation specialist, had clogged ducts, even mastitis, and I stuck to it. It was NOT something I got the hang of within a couple of weeks, it took months, and it was incredibly hard.
When I hear women tell me they tried, and it was too hard, I *get* it. It was sooo hard. I wouldn’t make a woman feel bad for it.
http://penelopesoasis.com
Fantastic post! I’m actually reading Is Breast Best? right now, and it’s nothing short of enlightening. The message shouldn’t be “Breast is Best”… it should be “Mama knows best.” Too often I’ve seen new moms in tears because all they need is someone to tell them that what THEY decide is what’s going to work best for their baby. Maybe instead of barraging mom with “oh, just try a little longer!” and giving her a list of herbs, positions, and breastfeeding “tricks” to try, tell her she’s doing an amazing job, and her baby will be smart, healthy, and happy – no matter how she chooses to feed him.
@Im- that was one study. This study (or at the very least the WIRED magazine report on the study) nowhere took into account what these children went through in their home life. I can see a million and one loopholes in this study. Did the impoverished kids have a father at home? Did the wealthier kids go to better schools? Why did they only study white kids? There were less than 200 kids studied. That is hardly a decent sampling, considering we live in a country of over 300,000,000. Were the impoverished kids eating roughly the same diet as the middle-class kids? What was each child’s IQ at age 9, when they began the study? What was the educational level of the parents of the kids in this study? Are there other factors at play more common to impoverished people- parents working multiple dead-end jobs, domestic violence, poor nutrition, being the child of a high school drop-out, occasional lack of food, gang affiliations or a strong gang presence in the child’s neighborhood, being the child of an ex-con, being the child of a teen mom, lack of parental involvement in a child’s education, their mother’s lack of prenatal care, possible drug use while their mother was pregnant, etc.– which could possibly alter the stress level in the life and home of an impoverished child and their neurological development, that are not at all addressed in the study? Ugh, the average amerikan’s [sic] ability to decipher scientific research. As for the poverty thing, it is something we are struggling to “rise above” and get out of. The recession has hit us hard. I never said our electricity has ever actually been cut off (the power company overlords usually give you a couple weeks to wave a magic wand and make money fall from the sky to avoid being in the dark) or that we have been evicted since the birth of our child. If you think middle-class formula-fed babies end up so much better off than an impoverished breast-fed baby, consider that one study found that formula fed babies are 14 (yes! 14!!) times more likely to be hospitalized as infants, when adjusting for socioeconomic factors. Quite a large disparity, eh? That’s not considering the fact they will have drastically higher rates of cancers and autoimmune disorders later in life. I could show you plenty of links on the alarming disadvantages of formula, but the moms here seem to want justification for their ill-informed choices, not the truth about the guesswork that continues to be the recipe for infant “formula,” or the genocide intentionally inflicted upon infants in developing countries by formula companies. I’m not being mean, I’m a bearer of truth– and the truth often hurts, honey! Was it Stephen Colbert who said “Truth often has a liberal bias” …? Moms, don’t feel bad about your choice to formula feed- you were just doing your best with the misinformation you were given.
Perhaps the author of the article is unaware that every single mother in the world produces vastly different milks. One mother in Japan will produce milk with different qualities to a mother in Iceland. A mother’s milk in the morning is different to her milk at midday. A mother’s milk for a 6 week old is different to a milk for a 10 week old. Milk in summer, milk in spring, milk when you have a virus – ALL different. Even the first minute and second minute of a breastfeed contain different enzymes and long chain fatty acids.
Formula = the same. Every time. Powdered, preserved in tin.
Breastmilk – always changing and related to blood – a living fluid.
You can write all the articles and do all the research in the world but it’s really this simple: breastfeeding is always best for babies, nutritionally.
Formula feeding has surpassed breastfeeding in western society and has millions of dollars behind it and unfortunately articles such as this one. It’s sad.
It’s about time we get off our high horse about being politically correct and and swallow the facts.
Formula is available for mother’s who cannot breastfeed or do not wish to breastfeed, and breastfeeding is the best nutrition for human babies. Is it really so hard to understand?
Human breast milk is the perfect food made by their human mothers. OF COURSE the breast is best. If it’s wasn’t, humans would have died out thousands of years ago. Breast milk from humans is meant to be fed to human babies, NOT breast milk from a cow, goat etc. Formula should be a LAST resort, not a first choice. Wonder why we have fat people, we were all stuffed with formula so we would sleep all night long.
I am in that small category of women, about 2%, who had complete lactation failure. My body just didn’t lactate. Because of the intense societal pressure to breastfeed, I felt like a complete failure and was so distraught about it. I even had irrational thoughts that the baby would get sick and die b/c my body wouldn’t lactate and thus I couldn’t breastfeed. I went to the lactation consultants who told me take a drug (Reglan?) and rent a pump and pump 8 times a day in order to induce lactation! I gave it a try, but most of the time would only see a few drops of milk fall into the pump bottles, and occasionally one-quarter of an ounce, if I was lucky. I pumped for a few months, hoping that there would be an improvement, but to no avail. I wasted significant time pumping each day in hopes of inducing lactation, suffered depression side-effects from that drug Reglan, and felt constant distress about the fact that I couldn’t breastfeed—all because I felt so much pressure from “experts” and other moms that I had to breastfeed. Now looking back, I wish I would have just savored the time enjoying the new baby, rather than waste any time on pumping and feeling depressed about lacation failure. By the way, the baby is now 7 years old and really healthy–has hardly ever gotten sick.
Thank you for this article. I felt like a failure because nothing I tried would get my baby to latch. No lactation consultant could help and I went to over seven. Nothing would work. I tried to pump but the pump wasn’t enough stimualtion and I soon dried up. I tried everything but with today’s “breast is best” approach I was left feeling like a bad mom.
I’m back. And I just spent a considerable amount of time researching the medical journals and studies that Joan Wolf (the author of this article) has cited.
Very interested to discover that the articles that supposedly give negative reports on breastfeeding ALL FULLY SUPPORT breastfeeding after their findings.
I urge other people to become fully informed before thinking that this poorly researched “let’s say something contraversial!” article has any merit on whether or not breastfeeding is worth any effort.
I feel very sad for the mothers who may have read this and felt justisfied in changing to / choosing formula over breeastfeeding due to the comments made in this article.
Do the research youself, then decide how you WANT to feed your baby. And if you can’t breastfeed for medical reasons, be thankful that we live in a day & age where formula is available to help us as it was originally intended to be used, before it became a commercial supermarket item or simply a “lifestyle choice”.
So, I don’t have the time to read all of these other comments, I’m sure some one else has already said this, but why is it that all of these pro-breast women demean those of us bottle- feeding? Do said women not stop to think about the fact that they contradict themselves almost every time they speak about it. Breastfeeding is free, wrong, hundreds of dollars on a pump, and the storage bags,nursing bras, bottles you are putting it in. And there’s another point in itself, how much better to mother nature are you when you are still relying on modern products, such as plastic, that sits in our landfills just the same as formula cans. Furthermore, how do you truly know what’s in your breast milk? You buy “organic” produce and shop at your local health food store to ensure that you’re “eating right”. How can you trust that “organic” food? And, usually, the only reason you can afford to eat all of that oh-so healthy food is because you have a great corporate job somewheres, once again, further from your Holy Natural ways. I truly believe that yes, breast is best, and most natural, and beneficial to a great relationship with your child. However, I only believe this to be true if you are truly one with nature, you grow your own food, live by the land, and never, not once, pump. I’ve listened to so much crap about formula feeding my child from yuppies, thats right, most of these women are yuppies, doing what is popular. I chose to give up on breastfeeding after a month, I realized that I couldn’t find the time or money to eat right and keep my sanity, my son refused my breast every time, and now, I have a healthy 4 month old that is so far ahead of his “milestones” it’s unbelievable. My point here other then venting is this, you want to be natural, fine,I respect breastfeeding mothers, but do not demean good mothers for their choice when you are no further from consumerism and neglect to Mother Nature then they are.
I tried to feed my first born via breast, he wouldn’t latch and I got depression and I actually started hating the sight of him because he wouldnt feed at all, he’d baby latch on for five minutes get frustrated and scream, I was in tears in hospital because he wouldn’t feed and was told off by a nurse “why are you crying stop it and feed your baby!!!” they didn’t help very well with my emotional state and cared more about if I was breast feeding, I asked if someone could give me formula but I was greeted with ignoring nurses and glares and it left me in tears all three days i spent in hospital…
Now my son is one, we gave him formula two days after we got home because he wouldn’t feed on me and he was the most happiest relaxed baby after that.. He’s not over weight, he actually turned out to have an allergy to lactose and switching to formula helped us find that out!!
Breast feed if you want.. But don’t preach to me if I don’t! I’m now expecting my second and have no
Intention of breast feeding this time around as i don’t want to go through it all over again
@Jessica- Breastfeeding is expensive? Breast pumps can be RENTED for pennies a day. I would only suggest using one if you absolutely *need* to, as I did, due my daughter’s premature birth. She could not latch- feeding her my own milk through a bottle was a life-saving intervention. As soon as she could latch on her own, I returned the pump and passed off the bottles to a formula-feeding mom. As for nursing bras- they get in the way, and I only wear them when I feel like I “need” to wear a nursing bra in a given social situation. You’re going to give moms crap for purchasing a few nursing bras?! How many bras (or shoes you never wear, or cheap plastic crap at WalMart, or food that spoils in the fridge….) do you, or any other woman for that matter, buy in a given year? Most women wear bras in this country. For all your “save the earth” ranting, I’m surprised you never once brought up the fact that having a child, regardless of how it is fed, makes a big carbon footprint. Regardless of how a child is fed, they will be exposed to toxins from conception onward. Formula exposes a child to more toxins, and offers NO immune system benefits- an indisputable FACT. Breastfeeding does not create waste, if the baby is drinking from the breast. That being said… Only yuppies breastfeed? My partner and I live in near-poverty. We could not afford daycare, even if both of us were working. I turned down free formula from WIC… I think being poor automatically bars me from yuppie status. It is possible to eat healthfully on a budget- bulk beans, nuts, and grains are super-cheap, and a great “base” for making meals! Local produce is usually cheaper, too. I am so very sad to see all these women say “the baby refused the breast.” No, sweetie, you simply did not have the support to make breastfeeding succeed. There are situations (less than 10% of moms) where formula is necessary, and we should feel grateful to live in a day & age where these babies have a decent chance at survival. We “breastfeeding Nazis” (I cringe at comparing a Goddess-given superpower to exterminating a race of people like termites) are not against formula. We are against perpetuating the myth that formula feeding is an adequate substitute to mother’s milk or a lifestyle choice. We are against formula advertising, and formula freebies from the hospital and maternity stores. We are for shattering the myths and misinformation about breastfeeding that dominate the parenting community. I feel sad for any mother who gives up on breastfeeding. I pity the children of mothers who can’t be bothered to breastfeed, which 98% of the time, boils down to pure selfishness and/ or ignorance of science, human evolution, and corporate greed in regard to infant nutrition. The other 2% fall into the category of daddy being the primary caregiver. Women in the US should be taking to the streets protesting our crummy parental leave laws. I support moms who NEED formula for a legitimate medical reason, though I wish human milk banks were more common. Breastfeeding is a child’s birthright. Formula should be a last resort.
hZUvBQ comment5,
Breastfeeding does not have health advantages. Rather, formula feeding has disadvantages and puts the baby at risk. Breastmilk is the norm for human babies. Not wonderful, just normal. Formula is not normal for human infants. It is made from another species’ milk.
Amen! You took the words right out of my mouth:
http://desperatelyseekingerin.blogspot.com/2011/02/boob-nazis.html
Thank you for this, I wish more people could see things this way. Breastfeeding is a choice each mother needs to make & it is a personal decision. Moms go through enough everyday & make hard decisions everyday they souldnt have to worry about backlash from people that can’t mind their own beeswax.
For everyone who thinks it’s necessary to subject yourself to any natural process provided there’s a marginal benefit to you or your baby’s health, I hope you’re all eating your placentas after birth. Doing so causes the smooth muscles around the mammary cells to contract and eject milk, adds some oxytocin to your system and to your breastmilk thereby easing the stresses of birth for you and your baby, and assists the contraction of the uterus. And those are just the benefits that we know of. Of course, eating one’s placenta is totally disgusting, so I’m going to thank god for civilization and pass on such things! As for breastfeeding, the controlled studies (rather than correlative observations) indicate, at most, a small, marginal benefit to breastfeeding. Bravo to women who are willing and able to sacrifice their time and energy for that benefit. I’m mildly impressed by your commitment. But you sound absolutely ridiculous when you judge other people for not doing what’s “natural.” The science on this issue simply doesn’t support your level of indignation. Then again, if there’s anything that’s “natural” for humans, it’s trying to find someone to feel superior to!
That is an excellent point made by GAEC. Perhaps if we all ate our plantentas there would be less women struggling with low milk supply, less PND, a quicker post birth recovery, and less post partum hemhorrages. That is interesting. Let’s move ahead into the future where every natural function is repulsive, we all conceive in test tubes, grow the baby in a machine, and have a nanny bottle feed ‘it’ for us. HUGE EYE ROLL.
Dismissing feeding a baby normally is pretty stupid, no breastfeeding mother is judging anyone or feeling superior in any way – considering that the vast majority of the female human race is able to breastfeed hardly makes anyone feel superior.
I have to say being educated about why breastmilk is important, normal and should not be lost to “modern” mothers is crucial. So we stopped eating placentas – did you ever consider that this may be a problem rather than something disgusting? Modern brainwashing is very sad. Btw have you tasted formula? It’s quite foul in itself – yet you don’t seem to have a problem with the thought of eating it.
CAROL WEITNER- There is something very wrong with your argument. Is the heart you were born with better than the man made heart? Yes but if you need the man-made heart no one looks down on you for getting it. No one walks around promoting some agenda that artificial hearts are bad and anyone who has one is misinformed-it was seen as a great thing that man was able to help the heart along.
Even so breast milk is absolutely not like a heart. The vitamin example is more analogous to breast milk. So in the vitamin example, is a healthy diet better than vitamins in pill form. Yes. Is there some agenda vilifying people who decide to take or give their kids vitamins? Are people freaking out about gummy vitamins in stores and looking sideways at people who purchase them for their children?
Breastmilk is not the holy grail, it does not produce perfect, illness free babies and children. Scientific research on the benefits could be better as pointed out in this article and there is no reason to exaggerate the benefits or turn it into some kind of competition. It’s just become another way for some women to look down on others and it’s ridiculous. The proof of this is in your responses and how crazy you react to people having a different opinion about the science behind breast milk.
Thanks to Joan for writing this article.