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Subject:
From:
Cynthia Good Mojab <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 25 Jan 2004 12:44:17 -0800
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Janet DeCoopman wrote: '... A third woman was told that her baby, who had latched fine for me despite a slightly short frenulum, must not like her milk when he had problems latching on later in the day.... As you can guess, all three women quit.  I am well known for being generally quite patient and diplomatic, but this was just too much.  When confronted, this nurse became very defensive, and said what we've all heard many times "Well, I bottle-fed my kids and they turned out fine.'

This is just one example of why the rhetoric (risk-based or "benefit"-based) of the US National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign matters. *Everyone* will see or hear these ads. Women and men, girls and boys, patients and health care providers, grandparents and cousins, strangers on the street, legislators and lawyers, hospital administrators and medical residents, employers in all fields, the heads of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Institute of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, etc. *Everyone.* A mother's decision about infant feeding is not made in a vacuum. If the people that are part of a mother's context have negative attitudes about breastfeeding, how on earth is that mother supposed to realize the importance of breastfeeding, and if by some miracle she does, how is she supposed to make the repeated decision to breastfeed hour after hour, day after day, month after month, and year after year while struggling against the barriers those people place in her path?

Evidence-based practice in the field of breastfeeding and human lactation includes evidence-based rhetoric. As I have posted before, I find the results of the focus groups that were conducted as part of the strategic planning of the Campaign worthy of listening to and responding to: risk-based language was a more powerful motivator of change than benefit-based language.

Cynthia

Cynthia Good Mojab, MS clinical psychology, IBCLC, RLC
Ammawell
Website: http://home.comcast.net/~ammawell
Email: [log in to unmask]
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