I have a question for Lactnetters from countries outside the US. I know that the term "nursing" can be confusing when used to describe feeding at breast, b/c it has other meanings, even exclusive other meanings in various cultures. What, then do you all say when you refer to any other mammal feeding its baby? I was raised to say that the mother (fill in the blank--dog, goat, giraffe...) was nursing her baby. I was raised using that term in reference to human? babies as well and still always use it when referring to my own babies--b/c it feels more true than does the word "breastfeeding". We continue to say that breastfeeding is about so much more than the milk, yet the very term implies nothing more than the feeding of the milk from the breast.
I have noticed mothers change their own language over the past 20 years as well. When I first helped moms, they all talked about "nursing" their babies. Today, they all talk about "breastfeeding" their babies. Maybe it is only odd coincidence (but, of course, there are none), but I have seen a decline in interest in the developmental and emotional aspects of feeding babies at breast over the past 10 years and a sharp incline in the interest in the milk itself. I do not like the term "breastfeeding". I do not think it evokes the sensory responses that we would like, nor that I experienced and still do in my own body, having nurtured my babies at breast for 16 years. "I am going to (try to) breastfeed" is purely a statement about feeding a baby, not about mothering a baby. Surely, many moms discover the mothering through the process, but many do not--many pump the product--the milk and feed it in bottles. Many more supplement one milk with another milk and eventually feed the other exclusively.
So, what do other mammals do when they feed their babies? And what are we doing? Imagery is indeed very powerful--it is the reason that it is used, manipulated, photo-shopped and impressed upon us with such clear intention. The words used to describe that imagery is also very powerful. We may all find ourselves having visceral reactions to certain imagery, but it is the tag lines, the jingles and other such language that we tend to remember. The most compelling advertising tends to unite the two into something even more powerful--a belief. And in truth, most of all of the advertising done today is not advertising at all--it is purely PR. If you haven't read "The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR", I suggest you do. Current technology fully supports the control of PR beyond anything even industry could have hoped for. Look at YouTube!!
A recent study on gossip showed that human beings will believe gossip EVEN WHEN their own personal experiences prove that the gossip is untrue!
http://www.livescience.com/health/071015-gossip-power.html
What is being managed here is not information but our very beliefs. A belief is simply something you tell yourself over and over again. Women actually believe that AIM is just as good as breastfeeding even though they have information to the contrary. Women actually believe that birth in hospitals is safe, even though we have facts to the contrary. Women believe many false things about pregnancy, birth and parenting b/c people with a lot of money understand how beliefs are formed. Then they rely on the rest of us to reinforce those beliefs. Anyone who reinforces those beliefs is contributing to their continued viability. We cannot take action when the neighbor tells a mother something false about feeding, but we should take action when health care workers do it. And we should take action when pump companies do it, and when the media does it as well.
Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA
Intuitive Parenting Network LLC
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