I missed the beginning of this discussion so I'm not sure who posted the quote below as it was copied several times in other posts.  In the early 80's, I was the coordinator of the Health Department's Refugee Health program.  I saw this happen with the southeast Asian refugees, especially the Hmong and Cambodians, who tended to have less exposure to western culture than some of the other Laotians and the Vietnamese. They came over here breastfeeding, everywhere, not worrying about being "exposed" etc.  But soon after arriving, they would "realize" that nobody here breastfed.  They only saw bottles and didn't realize some people were breastfeeding, they were just more private about it here.  So they would quickly switch to formula. They saw this as the more modern way, because they thought we are more advanced here, so they thought that we must know best what to feed babies.  It's so hard to counteract the culture of the U.S. as a whole, even when we know that some practices are not the best.



On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 11:11 PM, cillakat <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> My best friend lived in a rural poor area of Poland until she was 7
> (now
> 39)
> and her eldest sister was 14.   Where they lived, breastfeeding was the
> norm.  When there was a young baby, it was carried on the mother in a
> shawl/sling, the mother keeping one breast exposed much of the time to
> feed frequently.  It was the norm.  They thought nothing of it.
> When they moved here to the bright, shiny wealthy US (hmmph), they saw *no
> one* breastfeeding.  All of the Polish relatives here used formula.   The
> older sister, being a teen, was very quick to internalize a belief
> that formula=wealth=modern=good=desirable and
> breastfeeding=poor=peasant=old fashioned=gross....among other things.
>

Lucy Towbin, MSW, LCSW, IBCLC
Social Worker and Lactation Consultant


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