On 30/04/2012 14:13, Nikki Lee wrote:
> If m others can't use pacifiers to shut their babies up, they will use
> bottles of formula.
>
Nikki, the way you phrased this was unnecessarily judgemental and offensive.

I find it extremely unlikely that the majority of mothers who give 
pacifiers or formula do it 'to shut their babies up'.  I would say they 
do it because they correctly recognise that the babies need something, 
and they are trying to meet that need.  We can disagree over whether 
giving formula is necessarily the best *way* of meeting the babies's 
needs, but that doesn't make their *intentions* automatically more 
suspect than the intention of a mother who uses the breast for the same 
purpose.

Also, why assume the mothers were the ones instigating the formula 
supplements?  If this was happening in a hospital, it's perfectly 
plausible that the medical staff were the ones advising/pushing the 
bottles.  (Although the article says the hospital was trying to obtain 
Baby Friendly status, it doesn't say what other steps had been taken to 
achieve this.  Had the staff actually had any training on the importance 
of not being too hasty to push supplementation on a breastfed baby?  Or 
did someone just send round a 'no pacifier' memo in an attempt to try to 
set one relatively simple intervention into place in a situation where 
resources for further training weren't yet in place, and inadvertently 
set off a 'law of unintended consequences' situation?)

There's enough knee-jerk mother-blaming and stereotyping already in 
society.  Let's not be in such a rush to add to it.


Dr Sarah Vaughan
MBChB MRCGP

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