I have been following the discussion on helping mothers want to breastfeed
their baby. Millions of dollars have been poured into breastfeeding promotion
programs using numerous approaches. The National Breastfeeding Awareness
Campaign was supposed to use a risk based approach describing the health outcomes
of not breastfeeding. Approaching breastfeeding as free, healthy, as a
mechanism for close attachment, as a means to lose weight, as a money saver for
the health care system, as a protection for mothers against numerous
conditions, etc, still fails to reach many women.
I just read an article in the May 2006 supplement to Pediatrics written by a
pediatrician in Biloxi, Mississippi detailing what it was like to provide
pediatric care following hurricane Katrina. He states, "Because safe drinking
water to mix with the formula would be a long time coming, it was truly an
optimum time to discharge all infants on breast milk. Even after lengthy
discussions of the benefits of breastfeeding, especially now, mothers of the first 3
newborns chose to use formula. Even in a natural disaster with no running
water, some moms still will not be motivated to breastfeed. So we discharged
these infants with formula and disposable nipples." He goes on to describe how
he visited families in apartment buildings, finding dozens of mothers feeding
infants bottled water because that's all that was available.
One wonders what it will take to get the message across regarding
breastfeeding. Even in the face of a natural disaster with unknown means of providing
food for their infants, mothers still refuse to breastfeed. How sad.
Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA
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