Hi, all

I saw the CBS show this morning and agree with the comments so far. Amy did a great job--although it was obvious she would have liked to have had the last word. [Hannah Storm didn't give her time for rebuttal after Dr. Johnson's last statement.]

Seems to me, one of the problems with this whole ad campaign issue is that for too many people, presenting risks of not breastfeeding is the same thing as scaring moms into breastfeeding. Certainly it could be done that way:

Picture an ad that shows a child with cancer at death's door, barely audibly mumbling, "Gee, if only my mom had breastfed me...." Or a print ad that screams, "If you don't want YOUR child to die at an early age from a whole host of awful diseases, then YOU had darn-well better BREAST FEED!" Or maybe a radio ad that starts with gunfire and screaming kids, and the announcer says, "I bet THAT child wasn't breastfed. His mom COULD have PREVENTED this tragedy!" 

I haven't seen the ad campaign yet and can only go by what others who have seen aspects of it are telling us, but it seems that what the Ad Council was careful in trying to do was to present the evidence that not breastfeeding is not without risk--risk that has been proven time and time again with good research. It truly is the difference between educating moms (dads/healthcare workers/society/etc) to know the full extent of the "choice" they are making, and patronizingly telling them what to do. The Ad campaign seems to assume that parents are capable of making good decisions when presented with the full story. If we as healthcare providers are afraid to present the information, then we had best be prepared to deal with the professional risks (of malpractice) for NOT presenting that information. 

Melissa Vickers, MEd, IBCLC
Huntingdon, Tennessee

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html