Mary asks:
"How does a group of people (us? LLL? help from the medical
profession?)
nudge the cultural shift you are talking about? I think all here are
doing
all they can. There has to be more some others can do. Or are we
doing all
we can, and some just can't be reached?"

I am convinced that it is because so much of our culture just
doesn't know/accept that breastfeeding does make a significant
difference.  It's a real "Catch-22" because the more we try to make
that point, the more entrenched the "guilt" claim becomes.  When I
have tried to make the point by comparing with car seats or "back to
sleep" where we don't worry about guilt because we accept that it is
an important message to get out, I get responses like, "But babies
don't die from not being breastfed".  I try to point out statistics
that show that babies DO die from not being breastfed, it falls on
deaf ears.  One factor is that while you can point to an individual
baby who dies in an accident and wasn't wearing a seat belt or a
baby who died and was had been to sleep face down, you can't make
such a direct "accusation" when an individual baby dies from
something that occurs more in artificially fed babies.  It isn't as
easy to say that the feeding had a direct bearing as to say that
lack of car seat or sleeping position had a direct bearing.  Of
course, in these other incidences there are other factors that may
contribute to the death, but they are not concidered as "first to
blame".

This is why I feel that multifaceted approaches are needed.  We need
to keep speaking out, we need to write to newspapers/magazines that
give misleading or false information.  We need the National Ad
campaign.  We need whatever other ways there are to "chip away" at
the firmly entrenched "just fine" view.

I saw a clip on one of the "crazy video" TV shows that makes a good
comparison.  Some guys had made a cannon that shot bowling balls.
After sinking motorboats and smasking small objects, they decided to
attack a concrete block silo that needed to be razed.  The first 20
or so bowling balls just made holes in the base of the silo, but it
continued to stand.  The aim was very good, so it wasn't just
haphazard hitting.  The base was eventually riddled with holes and
they were about to give up because they ran out of bowling balls.
Then, gradually at first, the silo began to lean and did come
crashing to the ground.  I think our approach to changing attitudes
compares very well.  It takes a lot more "bowling balls" to bring
down this silo of attitude, but if we keep working at it and don't
keep aiming at the same spot, but work at the entire "base" of the
attitude, this "silo" will eventually tumble.  We have to be patient
and persistent.

Winnie

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