I realize that my perspective may be slightly skewed because of the 
population that I work with, but I don't feel that our efforts need to be 
focused on coming up with a new name for formula. I work in a major New 
York City Hospital where close  to 80% of our women leave the hospital 
breastfeeding and fully planning to breastfeed. They KNOW that breastfeeding 
is superior to feeding formula, whatever name you give it. And the name 
formula is not what makes their attempts to breastfeed fail when they do. 
More likely factors are mishandling of early breastfeeding challenges, lack of 
support for breastfeeding in the workplace and the incredibly broken health 
care system that totally ignores preventative care like breastfeeding support.

In private practice I have worked with several women having their second 
baby who had to use formula for their first babies, due to medical issues like 
PCOS, and they described the shame they felt when they pulled out a bottle 
of formula in front of their breastfeeding friends or in front of strangers in a 
playground. They know that breast is best, but couldn't make it happen and it 
has nothing to do with what the substance they were forced to use is called.

We do have to continue to educate women that breastfeeding should be the 
norm and that if one is going to deviate from the norm  there needs to be a 
very good reason for that, because no matter how  hard we try we will never 
be able to duplicate the amazing substance that is human milk. As long as we 
keep emphasizing that, does it matter what the name is? Formula to me just 
means that they have created a recipe to come as close as they can, which 
is actually the truth. They will just never be able to come up with the formula 
that is equivalent...

Until we have milk banks where any woman who is unable to breastfeed her 
baby is able to supply her baby with human milk, the only option we have 
when we need a substitute is formula. So I believe that we need to fully 
support and educate all women in their efforts to breastfeed and they will be 
able to arrive at the logical conclusion that formula is a substitute but not an 
equivalent...whether we call it nectar or sludge.

Kathy Lilleskov RN IBCLC (Feeling very protective of her mommies who are 
trying very hard to breastfeed)

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