Recently someone on lactnet referred us to a website that  apparently supplies information to parents on parenting and breastfeeding. This company makes bottles and a variety of other items. I understood that the person who posted the message had contributed to this site. I followed the lead and revisited this site to see what was new there. Most of us know about this site and similar sites and are quite aware of the tactics. I would not waste time reviewing it again, if it did not seem that breastfeeding professionals  were lending a hand to this site (i.e. the letter on lactnet signed by IBCLC ). I feel that it is imperative that we look at it again and remind ourselves why we really should not be involved with such projects. 

The first thing we need to remember is that this website is in fact an advertisement. Similar to our discussion on how artificial baby milk companies falsely rename advertising sessions in hospitals as educational sessions, the primary objective of this company is to show themselves and their product in a good light in order to make sales.  Just count the number of times that the product is mentioned on the web site and even without reading the material you will realize the real aim here. 

Now let's pretend that the products were not mentioned and review some of the messages that are conveyed on this site. I will only provide a few examples out of the many disruptive messages that appear on the site.
 
One important message is that breastfeeding is poised as the best for baby (as it always is) while concurrently showing breastfeeding as a difficult parenting task. This is further emphasized by the statement "Most healthcare professionals recommend breastfeeding your baby, if you can".  Please note the negative connotation of the words "IF YOU CAN".  There are a few more similar statements made throughout the web site.  Statements such as these as well as recurring mention of the painful side effects of nursing in combination with breastfeeding instruction,  are very powerful. The message that parents will hear is that in order to breastfeeding one must follow  stringent rules, one needs to learn a lot in order to breastfeed and breastfeeding can be painful.  
  
The picture is complicated further by the covert suggestion that nursing and not nursing are two almost similar parenting tasks. Naturally, they use the term bottle feeding instead of "not breastfeeding". This is an illustration of the successful of use of the equivalency position marketing tool.  

This is accomplished by the provision of information on baby care without differentiating between nursing and non nursing infants. For example, the section on the care of infants with constipation implies that, although there might be some differences between breastfeeding and bottle feeding in this regard, the condition and solutions are essentially quite similar for both parenting choices.

There is a whole section on dads and instructions on they can give  the bottle of milk, be it expressed or artificial milk. We all know that this plays into the popular myth that fathers need to bottle feed their nursing children in order to bond with them.   

The site is also abundant with outright misinformation about breastfeeding. One example is the suggestion that mothers drink plenty of fluids in order to increase the milk supply. I am sure that you are all imagining the new mom who forces fluids, reduces her ADH levels and hinders the secretion of oxytocin. The section on sleep is another example of information that might have possible detrimental effects on the nursing relationship. Moreover, the information provided is not only contrary to nursing but also disregards basic elements of human development.   

So the predominant message here is that breastfeeding is difficult, and while there are some health benefits, it is not really different than bottle feeding. Families who do "choose" to breastfeed can combine bottles with breast, which gives dad the important role that our culture says that they should have. Combine all of this with wrong information and viola' the product sells itself. 

The negative messages on the website are obviously worrisome, but they are not the focus of my concern in this post. What I am questioning is the appropriateness of contributing to the enhancement of advertising that is detrimental to the establishment of optimal nursing relationships. It seems to me that even if our intentions are good, (I am sure that the IBCLC who posted had only good intentions at heart) we must clearly analyze the projects we work on in order to ensure that the project aims are not in conflict with the goals that we are hoping to reach. 

Keren Epstein-Gilboa MEd BScN RN FACCE LCCE IBCLC
PhD (Candidate) 

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