I would love to speak to the ad agency who designed these posters. Having my background in adverstising and graphid design, I can tell you that very often what the client perceives will be too risky us often completely inaccurate. While the client may know her own business quite well  (here, we can think of HCPs or even LCs as the client), she often underestimates  the intlelligence of her clinets/customers. I saw this over and over again in my work. Playing to the lowest common denominator is the standard in American adverstising b/c it is what the client feels safe doing. When you could convice the client to take the risk, the result was almost always extremely positive--often far beyond expectations.

I think we (HCPs) in the US do a disservice to mothers, babies and the culture as a whole to continue to be a voice for images of "discreet nursing". Personally, I think HCPs are pushing their own hang-ups onto mothers and are far more responsible for the continuation of the fear of the public breast than anyone else except perhaps the AIM industries. We tell our own clients all of the time that they are not comfortable with breafteeding b/c they have not seen it growing up and yet we want to hide it from them at the same time.

Remember what happened with the US breastfeeding ad campaign? The ad agency did their homework and the public health community watered down the message (I don't care where the pressure came from--I believe if HCPs themselves really believed in breastfeeding, the pressure would have been irrelevent).

May I point out that I doubt the AIM compaines are second-guessing their ad agencies because they have no personal agenda against promoting AIM. OTOH, many in the health care community have their own personal lines in the sand when it comes to promoting feeding at breast--babies whould't be too old, shouldn't be tandem-nursing, breasts shoudn't be seen, we can't say AF hurts babies or whatever other truth tweeks their own beliefs--mostly related that what they themselves have done or experienced. It has always amazed me that so many HCPs will openly say things like "we cannot tell a mother xyz, b/c she might have abc response", when xyz is the truth!!!

If feeding at the breast is the norm, then somewhere inside of us, we know it and need to be reminded over and over again. We are a visual culture--being told means nothing--seeing it means everything. The posters show gorgeous, normal women--who aren't even shown in public settings! I want to see exactly those kinds of images here--and others that show women nursing in the context of their public lives as well.

Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA
Intuitive Parenting Network LLC

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