You'd think in Norway we wouldn't have to deal with media backlashes against
breastfeeding, but it does happen.  We have not had formula giveaways and
won't anytime soon, but there are plenty of people with strong feelings
about their own less-than-happy experiences and some of them do write for
publication.

I was most aghast, though, earlier this year, when a general practice
physician who also does freelance medical journalism in a couple of major
papers and the midwifery journal wrote a grumpy piece in the midwifery
journal calling for a halt to midwives acting as 'BF police' which is the
strongest term used here.  'Nazi' is so loaded that you just don't call
anyone that lightly, in fact only if they are a professed national socialist
or something so close that you couldn't be sued for libel for saying it.
Her take was that BF isn't a problem here, why don't we worry about BF in
developing countries instead, and stop beating women over the head with our
nagging about it.

This person has 5 children herself and has breastfed all of them, and she
belongs to the profession (GPs) whose position enables them to do the most
damage to breastfeeding of any I can think of, because breastfeeding women
are forced to seek help from them for mastitis and a host of other,
non-breastfeeding medical problems that may need treatment with prescription
medications, which very often leads to the doc telling them they have to
wean, temporarily or permanently.  There is no requirement that they have
any knowledge about breastfeeding per se, not in their basic education nor
in continuing education.

Before I knew what I was doing I had fired off an angry letter to the then
editor of the journal about the continuing need for 'BF police', but that we
have never, ever had as our task the policing of women to make sure they
breastfeed according to the official recommendations.  Rather, our job is to
police the health professions whose job it is to support breastfeeding
women, to make sure THEY don't cack it up beyond recovery, and to police
society so that protection in the workplace for breastfeeding women is
strengthened rather than eroded, and that the WHO code is not circumvented.
I also pointed out that you don't have to choose between supporting BF at
home and abroad.  I promptly forgot all about it since I had gotten it all
off my chest.  It was printed in the next issue of the journal and as this
is a publication for midwives, I have had only positive reactions to it.
Still, you can take the same tack in a lay publication - in accordance with
Kerry's excellent suggestions, seconded by Heather.  We need to make it
clear that we are the allies of women and that no one respects women more
than we do.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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