This is worth repeating. From Val McClain.  The decision to be Baby
Friendly, or not, based on whether or not we make mothers feel guilty or
not has more to do with the marriage of the hospital to the formula mob
than anything mildly connected to the good health of mother or baby.



It's a marriage  to a mob based on money. That's what is driving this
bus.

Kathleen Bruce RN IBCLC
Listowner Lactnet listserv
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Archives: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/lactnet.html

Kathleen

-----Original Message-----
From: Lactation Information and Discussion
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Valerie W. McClain,
IBCLC
Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2002 1:16 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: guilt? regret?


The use of the word, guilt in regard to infant feeding, is a social
marketing
tool used to silence everyone.   Guilt is about blame, wrong-doing,
fault.
Our society has chosen to fault individual mothers for their choices
rather that put the blame, the guilt squarely on the shoulders of
institutions and governmental bodies that have chosen to support the
infant formula industry over the individual mother.  Pregnant mothers
are swamped with information from the infant formula industry, given
free formula in the hospital and enough coupons for infant formula to
fill a house.

Some administrators of medical institutions say we should not make moms
feel guilty. What?  By using the word guilt, they have presented the
issue of
infant feeding in terms of a right and a wrong.   When I talk to moms in
regard to infant feeding decisions or weaning I  talk about regrets.
Will
you regret this decision to wean now?  Will you regret bottle-feeding
this baby?  Regret is about sorrow, about grief.  I suggest that we quit
talking about guilt, a social marketing tool to silence people.
Instead, we need to present to others the concept of regret and the need
to limit the amount of regrets we have in our lifetime.  I have alot of
regrets in my 50 years of living but no regrets about breastfeeding all
my children.  Guilt is for wrong-doing.  Women bottlefed for many
reasons and most of the reasons are because our culture is guilty of not
supporting breastfeeding. Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC

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