LACTNET Archives

Lactation Information and Discussion

LACTNET@COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
"Rebecca DeYoung Daniels, MBA, RD" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 24 Jul 1998 15:44:02 -0500
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (27 lines)
I agree w/ all the previous posts listing numerous obstacles to
breastfeeding and I'm not sure that I could choose which one holds the
#1 spot.  However, my impression is that we live in a convenience
society...we want convenient food, convenient entertainment, convenient
education and convenient relationships.  Let's face it--children are not
convenient, but many parents spend exorbitant amounts of time and energy
trying to make them *be* convenient to better fit the expected societal
mold.  Yes, many of us in the lactation arena understand that
breastfeeding is truly convenient, but the perception of many mothers I
interact with is that it's very limiting and confining, some things a
woman of the 90s certainly does not find convenient.  I hear these
mothers saying that their babies just *have* to take a bottle by 3
months, even if they have the privilege of being home w/ the baby as a
full-time mother.  It's more convenient in their minds to purchase ABM
and wash supplies for artificial feeding than it is to put the baby to
breast.  Breastfeeding interrupts their social agendas, careers that
require frequent and lengthy travel, etc.  Agreed, knowledge of how to
express milk and maintain supply would be helpful (the ignorance
obstacle), but these otherwise well-educated mothers, IMHO, really don't
want that information because it's (1) more convenient to be free from
the necessity to breastfeed and (2) nice to avoid the guilt that would
come if they were armed w/ the proper knowledge.

How to overcome this obstacle???  I'd love help w/ that!

Rebecca DeYoung Daniels, MBA, RD, LD, LLLL in Overland Park, KS

ATOM RSS1 RSS2