Hi Nina,

Yes, I am that Jacqueline Wolf. I'm really happy that you've found my
work helpful.

I agree with you completely that urging mothers to breastfeed without
also providing them with the means necessary to do so is unconscionable.
Mothers are not able to breastfeed for many reasons, including lack of
societal support.

Eye-catching public health messages, however, are designed to fire up at
the entire community. If the "babies were born to be breastfed" ads had
been aired in the U.S. as thoroughly as the "friends don't let friends
drive drunk" series of ads (which similarly provided NO accompanying
means to treat alcoholism) we would have seen a national discussion of
the importance of breastfeeding and ways to mitigate blockades to
breastfeeding. After all, in the wake of the "driving drunk" ads we
almost immediately heard discussions of ways to eliminate drunk driving.
Similarly, in the wake of the breastfeeding awareness campaign we would
have seen talk shows and magazine articles asking incessantly, "So why
aren't more mothers breastfeeding? What are the impediments? What can we
do to eliminate those impediments?"

Public health campaigns are meant to arouse enough interest to move
people to demand the resources necessary to change behavior en masse.
The formula industry vigorously fought the airing of those ads precisely
because they feared the ads would have prompted enormous change in the
way Americans view breastfeeding and formula feeding, so much so that we
would have fought for the resources to allow mothers to fully breastfeed
if that was their desire.

What I fear, given the criticism of the breastfeeding awareness campaign
emanating from the breastfeeding community, is that the formula industry
has a far better understanding of what moves the public to change
unhealthy behaviors than the breastfeeding community does.

Jackie

-----Original Message-----
From: Nina Berry [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2007 7:26 PM
Subject: Re: blog on failure of the breastfeeding awareness campaign

Hi Jackie
(Are you the Jaqueline Wolf whose work on the history of infant feeding
I
have devoured, excitedly and cited in presentations and papers for some
years? )
Of course you are right about the interference of industry with the BF
Awareness Campaign.  I saw (but could not save) the original adverts
when
they were leaked  and I do wonder (we'll never know) if the approach
wasn't
flawed from the beginning.  That said, the vigour with which it was
opposed
by industry suggests otherwise.  My take is that the risk based message
was
aimed at mothers - implying that mothers were either uneducated or
unwilling
to do the right thing by their babies.  And that infant feeding is
solely
determined by maternal choice.  I don't know about American moms but
Aussie
mums want to do right by their babies but there are too many barriers
placed
in their roads.  Here, I think it is government, community and health
systems that need to understand the risks (ie costs) associated with a
failure to provide adequate resources for supporting mothers to
breastfeeding. Actually I think it is cruel to inform mothers of the
risks
associated with artificial feeding without changing their environments
to
make it possible for them to achieve exclusive breastfeeding. I wonder
if
even the Ad Council got snagged in the very powerful patriarchal
ideologies
surrounding motherhood.  Until we challenge the idea that infant feeding
is
a mothers' choice, I don't think that we will be able to see real change
for
our dyads.
warm regards
Nina Berry 
Australia 

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