Nancy, do not despair, you are not alone! Many of us know exactly what
it means to market artificial feeding to parents. And, I don't care if
the milk in the container is breastmilk, it is not normal feeding to
use a bottle.It is common, but not normal. It is the way it is because
everyone keeps saying so!  As long as we say women  must do
this--leave their babies and be unavailable to them-- and there is no
way to change it,  we are not even coming close to making a change. By
accepting the companies such as Medela are fine to market their
bottles to the public because there is a need for the bottle and we
want to at least give that money to a company that supports
breastfeeding, we are playing their game and playing just as they
expected we would.

If we cannot wrap our heads areound the reality that the process of
suckling at the breast for noursishment is more than milk, we are
never going to see any changes in the rights of mothers and babies to
be together. That is the missing piece in all of this.  Babies need to
be with their mothers.You can't have it both ways.  Say we need better
maternity leave and more work enviroments that support mother/baby as
a dyad and continue to say it is okay to separate them if you leave
beind a product of her body. We're getting what we asked for...a way
to help mothers leave their babies behind and give them breastmilk.
We totally missed the chance and jumped on the pump bandwagon instead.
 Making sure mothers had a right to pump replaced making sure babies
can come to mothers, or mothers can bring babies, or onsite care, etc.
Her body is missing, her breasts are missing, but look, here is her
milk and that this good enough. Change is never going to happen if we
refuse to think mothers and babies need to be together. Personally, I
thinke 'at the breast' is where babies deserve to be fed...not just
'from it'.  Reality being what it is can always change.

How many social wrongs have continued for generations because "that is
just the way it is" was the mantra?  How about a new mantra.  How
about speaking out about how it should be, what needs to happen to
make it so, and working harder to make it a reality.  Not accepting
the status quo and thinking nothing will ever change.  Of course
things can change!  But not as long as no one dares to say the change
needs to happen.  If the thought really is that babies are just fine
without their mothers as long as they are getting breast milk and
adequate care in her absence, then we can forget any change ever being
a reality.  There will be no need for maternity leave changes, no need
for allowing women flexible work lives that protect the dyad.  There
is no need to make a change unless we can say clearly that the human
baby needs the presence of the mother and not just her milk.

If we think it is excusable to market bottles to the public, how can
we expect corporations to see why it is not okay to promote artificial
feeding?  How do you expect to become a society where babies and
mothers as a dyad become reality if we who shoudl know better don't
see it as possible?  If it is possible in some countries for women and
babies to be together, it is possible everywhere.  Who gains to win
the most when we market mother baby separation as necessary?  Who
stands to profit from the choices of mothers to not be able to with
their babies, and who promotes that necessity? In America, it is
always the money.  Always.  Even when women think it is about
them...about their careers, goals, needs, whatever....in the end, they
believe this because it profits someone for them to believe this. If
we truly believe women can have it all, then lets act like it.  Having
it all means just that...all.  All should not mean sacrificing the
well being of our children.  And, if the opposite is true, we cannot
have it all then lets be honest about that too.  At the very least
lets be honest about who suffers when we do not protect the right of
the baby to be 'nursed' at the breast.

I think Nikki has said it very clearly.  Women believe what they are
told to believe. Men also, but we are talking about mothers here.
They believe their babies do not need them, they believe drugged and
delivered is best for them and their baby, they believe that formula
and breastmilk are exactly the same, they believe that their baby does
not really even know them, and is perfectly happy with the care of the
baby nurse, and many other falsehoods.  Women believing these things
profits others.  It does not profit the babies.

Change does not come from accepting things as they are.  It comes when
women finally say "enough".  But the message they get is "leave your
milk, and that is all the baby needs".  Artificial feeding is promoted
as normal and now even those who should know better can't see the
harm. How can women say "enough" if they do not believe there is
anything 'wrong' with the way things are?  Babies deserve more than
"this is just the way it is" . The experience of breastfeeding is not
only about the mother.  It is about the baby, the baby's innate right
to be near his/her mother and receive milk from the breast with all
that goes with it..not just the milk.  Pumping and bottles may be a
reality, but they should be a reality in the way crutches and
wheelchairs are a reality.  Formula should be a reality in the way
life support machines are a reality. Something we need sometimes, but
hopefully not often and with respect for what is lost.

Medela is no different from any other company.  I am not fooled into
thinking because it is breastmilk they are supposedly marketing the
bottles to be used for they are supporting the process.  Indeed, they
are about the product the process creates.This is fine.  We need a
good breast pump company, but that does not give them permission to
promote articial feeding to the public and call it following the WHO
Code.

I do not sit on a fence about this issue at all.  If we ever hope to
be a culture that supports, promotes, and protects the baby's right to
breastfeed, we will have to first make bottle feeding something that
is not used as an icon of baby care and mothering.  And that has to
start somewhere.  It starts with the marketing of artificial feedings.
 I see that as the spirit of the WHO Code.

Take care,
Pam MazzellaDiBosco, IBCLC, RLC

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