I've mentioned it in another post today, and I've mentioned it before, but
use of accurate language can help challenge sloppy thinking and create
change.  The example I've recently given is how the word "milk" is used.  I
started thinking about that many, many years ago when my clients would
sometimes ask me, "When can my baby start having milk?"  My reply puzzled
them, and needed gentle explanation: "Your baby is already on milk, your
milk, the most important milk for her/him.  Do you mean other types of
milk?"  Some still didn't "get" it, the idea of cow's milk as the norm, even
the ideal, being so entrenched.  For many years I have been careful to write
"cow's milk" or "bovine milk" or "artificial baby milk" or "goat's milk",
etc., when mentioning other kinds of milk.  (This can be done without
sentences looking awkward.)  The last couple of years I have started writing
"milk", instead of "breastmilk" when writing on infant feeding.  The other
kinds of milk are denoted with descriptive words.  I mention at the start
that, for the purposes of the article, "milk" is human milk.

 

Correct terminology starts people thinking.  It can be challenging at first.
Because of care with language by a few, the concept that breastfeeding is
*normal*, not "best", is being used more, including in reports and
conference presentations. We still have a way to go to move away from the
old, dated practice of comparing breastfeeding with artificial feeding, thus
unconsciously enshrining artificial feeding as the norm, the standard for
comparison.  However, it is happening.

 

Recently I attended a lecture on "memes", ideas or fragments as viral, i.e.
able to spread and contaminate quickly.  Many of you have heard of "viral"
advertising on the internet.  Worthwhile ideas can also be spread - we just
don't think of this.  I am sure the widely accepted spelling of
"breastfeeding" as one word came about because many of us started spelling
it this way, to show it is a unified idea.  At the time, there were three
spelling variants, reflected in different dictionaries and the house styles
of different publications - "breast feeding" (2 words), "breast-feeding"
(with hyphen), and "breastfeeding".

 

Advertisers are very skilled at using words so as to spread an idea.  An
example is old campaigns that cow's milk is a "complete" food.  It isn't a
complete food for calves, the species for which is specific, who need to eat
grass very early, and so why should it be a complete food for humans (except
for the viral message in advertising).  One of the great misuses of words is
"natural" in advertising.  It's used for rubber or silicon nipples, for
supplements (putting something into tablet form as "natural"), or cosmetics,
even - as "natural sugar" - for pear juice as an additive to canned fruits
other than pears.  Let us remember that good ideas can be viral, too, if we
use words wisely, and keep on doing so.

 

Virginia

Dr Virginia Thorley, OAM, PhD, IBCLC, FILCA 

Private Practice Lactation Consultant

Brisbane, Qld, Australia 

E: [log in to unmask] 

 

 


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