Evelyn - my congratulations on your efforts to promote WBFW in your
hospital, and my commiserations on your lack of success in being able to
show pictures of discreet breastfeeding.  How maddening the gymnastics
employed to show almost anything except real breastfeeding and real
breastmilk!

I think this is such an important point - that breastfeeding needs to be
portrayed discreetly.  This happens again and again to so many of us,
doesn't it?  But why discreetly?  Is breastfeeding offensive?  If so, to
whom?  Certainly not to the baby!  My humble opinion is that - if we are to
succeed in our goal to make breastfeeding seem normal, natural, healthy and
absolutely wonderful then we need to portray it as such in the pictures we
use.  If the stated national goal is that a large percentage of a country's
babies should be breastfed for X number of months or years, then our
pictures should show that breastfeeding *happens*, and that babies of all
ages breastfeed wherever mothers and babies are to be found - in homes,
while out shopping, on picnics and other family leisure places, in
hospitals and doctors' waiting rooms, in banks and post offices -
everywhere.   When we tap into the mindset that breastfeeding should be
practised discreetly and modestly (only in secret behind closed doors,
behind nappies/shawls/special nursing clothes which cover every inch of
bare skin so as not to offend anyone) IMHO we simply perpetuate the
attitude that there must be something shameful and not-quite-nice about
it.  How are we going to give young mothers the confidence to breastfeed
their babies any time, anywhere, or persuade little girls and little boys
(the parents of tomorrow) that breastfeeding is lovely if they don't see it
happening?    And if *we* don't do this, then who will?

I'm prepared to accept that (certainly in most of the western world)
breasts have a dual function, attraction of the male, and nourishing the
young.  It is possible to pick up almost any magazine or newspaper to find
examples of how breasts are photographed for the former, but try and attach
a baby to a breast in order to illustrate the latter and we all rear back
in horror.  At the very least, this is a restraint of trade.

Over a decade ago, when I was trying to collect pictures in order to teach
ante-natal mothers what breastfeeding actually looked like in my
breastfeeding classes, I started hunting through several years of LLL
publications and calendars.  Among all the misty, lovely, lacy photos from
1987 to 1991 I was unable to find even one picture of one mouth on one
breast.  Have we really made no progress since then?

I really think we need to re-examine our attitudes to discreet nursing.
Let's not be secretive and ashamed and apologist.  Let's submit photographs
and pictures that celebrate how wonderful it is to feed and nurture a baby
at the breast - everywhere. Let's show the breast, and the mouth, to make
it clear how the milk transfers from the mother to the baby, and try to
capture the sweet enjoyment of each of them.  One of my favourites is the
UNICEF Suzy Martin picture.  Which hospital could object to such a
politically correct depiction of such a healthy, normal activity.  Whose
interests are we trying to protect?  Let's encourage our colleagues and our
clients to put the needs of *babies* first, and to portray breastfeeding as
the norm.

Don't give up, Evelyn!

Pamela Morrison IBCLC, Brisbane, Australia
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 23:35:54 -0500
From: Evelyn Landry <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: 8/16/03 - WBFW ads
Every year our hospital community relations department designs ads to
advertise our WBFW seminar. Every year we submit sample pictures of
mothers discreetly nursing to include in the ad. It is always turned
down as they don't think it would be appropriate to show a nursing
couple, and they come up with something like pictures of children, or of
babies being held, and one year even a bottle with an "X" on it to talk
about breastfeeding. This year they wanted to have mothers standing
by a garden to state that breastfeeding was "nature's first food." Our
director who is very pro breastfeeding has asked that I try to get any
sample ads that anyone else may have used that show nursing babies and
their mothers. What was the community reaction? Have you seen that
the ads increased the interest in breastfeeding? We are hopeful that
if we can prove that these ads can be very discreet and successful our
public relations dept might be convinced to allow the pictures we
choose, showing breastfeeding babies. Thank you for any information
you can share.
Evelyn Landry, RN, IBCLC <[log in to unmask]>

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