I have asked myself the same question many times. One easy explanation is, of
course, the mighty $. Create a need and make money. However, it is not so
simple. Throughout history, we see mothers wanting to separate themselves from
their babies. Archeological artefacts of infant feeding devices attest to this.
Even today, education does not stand up to emotions and/or social pressures.

It is commonly accepted in our enlightened group that education should open
anyone's eyes to the dangers of not breastfeeding. Yet, despite hard evidence of
the hazards of ABM from the medical/scientific literature, we will find mothers
"choosing" not to breastfeed. Why? I have never seen a study where mothers who
knew the facts and who still chose to feed ABMs to their babies were asked why
they did so. As long as we do not get their side of the story, we will not make
strides in that population.

My guess is that we would have to become a little too personal with these women
to get to real answers. However, this is an excellent topic for a qualitative
kind of research (so well described in Breastfeeding and Human Lactation,
Riordan and Auerbach 1st edition, p. 573-4, and 2nd edition, p. 747-8). The
results from this kind of research would certainly open some doors for us LCs to
reach this population. Hint, hint, principal investigators.

I suggest that we stop puzzling ourselves as to why some women do not see the
light despite the blinding evidence and that we get down to basics: get the
answer directly from the horse's mouth.

Nicole Bernshaw


> With all the published evidence linking formula use with increases in
> degenerative diseases in infants and later adult life....WHY is formula (and
> pacifiers) still being made available in ways which directly interferes with
> initiation of Breast Feeding?
>
> i.e. Why fill the mouth in the 1st three days with a pseudo-mom which by
> recorded literature directly steers the infant AWAY from mom?
>
> DCPage,DDS

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