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Jeannie Babb Taylor: The problem with breastfeeding
10/03/07
Jeannie Babb Taylor
What if doctors discovered a
substance so potent, it could prevent dozens of diseases and even reduce the
risk of cancer? What if these benefits extended not only to those who partake
of this amazing substance, but also those who serve it? If a pharmaceutical
company had developed it, it would be a billion-dollar industry. Breast milk,
though, is free. Without a visible profit stream, it also lacks a marketing team.
Numerous studies show that breastfeeding reduces cancer risks for both givers
and receivers — yet the American Cancer Society (ACS) has no campaign
statement on the importance of breastfeeding. One huge study (147,000
participants) found that American women could cut their breast cancer risk by
33% by increasing the lifetime average of breastfeeding from three months to
thirty months, which is the worldwide average. The ACS concluded that
significantly increasing breastfeeding duration was “unrealistic” and instead
continues to focus on mammograms, cancer prevention drugs and other
methods that put money in the pockets of physician groups and
pharmaceutical companies.
Although breastfeeding has been shown to reduce sudden infant death
syndrome (SIDS) risk by as much as 55%, the National Institute for Child
Health (NICH) invests virtually nothing in breastfeeding education. Instead, the
NICH organized the “Back to Sleep” campaign encouraging parents to put
babies to bed on their backs. The first corporate sponsor of the Back to Sleep
campaign was Gerber, a formula and baby food manufacturer. Is it any surprise
there is no financial backing to promote breastfeeding as a SIDS prevention
tool?
Breastfeeding contributes significantly to child health. According to the
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) breastfeeding is “as important to
preventive pediatric health care as promoting immunizations, car seat use, and
proper infant sleep position.” Yet a recent AAP survey found that 45 percent
of pediatricians who responded see formula-feeding and breast-feeding as
equally acceptable. Once again, we can follow the money to understand this
phenomenon. Doctors receive numerous samples, perks, and gifts from formula
companies — a practice condemned by the World Health Organization (WHO.)
Formula makers are forced to give lip service to the superiority of
breastfeeding. Yet these companies spend millions of dollars per year tripping
up new mothers. They have inroads at the obstetrician’s office, the hospitals
where babies are born, and the pediatrician’s office. Formula makers ensure
that every mother goes home with a couple of cans of formula, so it will be
available in the middle of the night when the baby is crying, she is exhausted
from lack of sleep and she is vulnerable to the insecurities American society
has pressed on her day after day. The result? Even though 70% of mothers
start breastfeeding, within a few months the statistics have flipped. Only
11.3% of babies are still exclusively breastfed at six months.
It is difficult to blame American mothers for the failure to breastfeed, when
everything is stacked against mothers from the start. Unlike women in most
other developed countries, American women receive no paid maternity leave.
Only those on welfare receive a stipend to carry them through the first months
of mothering. Women who support themselves are forced to return to work,
where it is often impossible to bring an infant, and pumping opportunities may
be few and far between, with unsanitary conditions.
Rep Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) recently introduced the Breastfeeding Promotion
Act of 2007. The bill amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect
breastfeeding women from workplace discrimination. It also gives employers a
tax credit of up to $10,000 per year to provide employees with equipment,
dedicated space and consultation for pumping breast milk. The bill establishes
standards for breast pumps, and creates tax breaks for women who purchase
breast pumps in order to maintain employment.
Maloney says, “I have heard many horror stories of women who were fired for
trying to figure out a way to express milk at work. My bill clarifies the
Pregnancy Discrimination Act to protect breastfeeding under federal civil rights
law, ensuring that women cannot be fired or discriminated against in the
workplace for expressing (pumping) milk, or breastfeeding during breaks or
lunch time.”
At least the welfare moms have the chance to stay home and breastfeed —
after all, their babies comprise the most high-risk population of infants in terms
of health problems, asthma, failure to thrive and learning disabilities. Yet the
formula-makers find these mothers, too. Government programs take away one
of the incentives for breastfeeding by shelling out $600 million per year to put
low-income infants on the bottle. Taxpayers also foot the bill for the increased
healthcare cost of these children.
The U.S. government has certainly been slow to recognize the fountain of
youth. Reagan and the first Bush both refused to ratify the World Health
Organization’s breastfeeding code, designed to protect new mothers from
formula makers’ guerilla marketing tactics. The code was not recognized by the
U.S. until Clinton signed it in 1994, and it is still not enforced.
Recently, a handful of individual states sought to enforce the code. They
especially want to stop hospital formula marketing, because once a baby
receives a bottle, the mother and baby are confronted with a whole host of
problems including nipple confusion and inadequate milk supply. If successful
breastfeeding is not established within the first few days, formula-makers are
practically guaranteed a new customer.
In Massachusetts, it was Governor Mitt Romney who struck down a ban on
hospital marketing. Less than two weeks later, Romney announced that he had
secured the construction of a $66 million pharmaceutical plant in Devens,
Massachusetts. The plant is owned by Bristol-Myers Squibb, the largest
formula manufacturer in the world.
Outside the U.S., things are no better. Nestle actually targets babies in
developing countries, where breastfeeding has the greatest potential for good.
Babies are routinely hooked on formula in third world hospitals and sent home
without ever establishing breastfeeding. Back in the village, families soon
discover that the cost of buying formula is higher than their entire wage.
As a result of Nestle’s tactics, sub-Saharan Africa has a breastfeeding rate of
only 32%; Asia, 35%; Indonesia, 39%, Vietnam, 19%, and Thailand, 5%.
According to WHO and UNICEF, approximately 1.5 million babies die each year
because they were started on formula instead of breast milk.
American women who breastfeed should expect resistance from a society that
depicts over-sized breasts on magazine covers and billboards, yet rejects the
breast’s highest function. Numerous polls show that the majority of Americans
are comfortable seeing women breastfeed in public; yet, a few shrill voices
continue to insist that it is improper.
American women have been harassed or thrown out of libraries, restaurants
and public parks for the simple act of breastfeeding. One woman was even
expelled from a Vermont Delta Freedom flight for breastfeeding her child,
resulting in nurse-ins at Delta counters across the nation.
Most recently, comedian Bill Maher praised Appleby’s for discriminating against
a nursing mother, asserting that women who breastfeed in public are lazy and
narcissistic. Maher’s other comments, which are too crude to be printed in the
county paper, illustrate that what bothers some people about breastfeeding
isn’t that it is perceived as sexual, but rather that it is not. Hooters, wet T-
shirt contests and Playboy magazines are just fine with people like Maher, who
believe that breasts are not for babies, but for men.
Although doctors agree that “breast is best,” their own licensing board does
not follow their recommendations. Breastfeeding mother and aspiring doctor
Sophie Currier had to sue the National Board of Medical Examiners for the right
to take pumping breaks during her nine-hour licensing exam. In typical anti-
feminist fashion, the judge told Sophie she would just have to take the exam
when her child was older and finished breastfeeding. She would have lost her
residency in clinical pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital and derailed
her career. Sophie appealed the decision, and won.
The “problem” with breastfeeding is that it lacks a corporate profit stream. It
profits mothers and babies tremendously. It profits families, the government
and taxpayers. The USDA estimates that $3.6 million in healthcare costs could
be saved if more U.S. babies were breastfed. Unfortunately, nothing much
happens in America unless it lines the pocket of a corporation. WHO cares
about breastfeeding, but corporate America never will.
We live in a culture that despises human bodily fluids — even as we feed our
children cow’s milk and use pregnant mare urine (Premarin) to balance
menopausal hormones. Canadian researchers are even developing medicines
based on genetically-engineered pig semen. The market for animal fluids
continues to grow, because there is a profit stream associated with it. If
formula companies maintain control of doctors and legislators, a day may come
when humans are no longer classified as mammals. Mammals, after all, are
defined as animals that have hair and suckle their young.
Jeannie Babb Taylor is a local business leader and author. She also teaches
Sunday school, educates her children at home, and engages in Georgia
politics. Jeannie may be contacted at [log in to unmask], or you can leave a
public comment on her blog OntheOtherHandColumn.blogspot.com.
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