Some of you, like myself, may remember being bombarded a few months back
with talking heads on television and online articles that discussed a new
'parenting' book called, 'Bringing Up Bebe:  One American Mother Discovers
the Wisdom of French Parenting'.  The author of that book, Pamela
Druckerman, has now interviewed Elisabeth Badinter for the May edition of
the US version of Marie Claire Magazine that I received in the mail today.
In it, she interviews Badinter, who is a French philosopher and has just
written a book herself, 'The Conflict: How Modern Motherhood Undermines the
Status of Women'.  In this interview, Badinter (being in the US, and having
never heard of her, some quick online research showed that she's a French
historian and philosophy professor whom a French news magazine's
poll named as France's "most influential intellectual") describes how
"naturalist" acts such as breastfeeding on demand 'makes the female into an
animal again' and is a rejection of the 'gains of the 21st century' (ie:
bottle feeding).  She goes on to mention how by breastfeeding 24 hours a
day, a woman is 'reduced to her role as a nursing animal' and that the
child 'becomes a factor in the separation of the couple'.  Continuing, she
mentions, "Breastfeeding a few weeks, sometimes a few months, OK.  But when
it's recommended that you breastfeed your child for one year - six months
exclusively, with nothing else, day and night, on demand - there are
obvious consequences for the couple".  There are a lot more additional
quotes that may get your blood pressure to rise, but I'll stop there.  With
a little more Internet digging, I also found it interesting to see that
Badinter's late father was the founder of Publicis Groupe (a multinational
French advertising and communications company), which had connections
with Nestle.

Best,

Jasmine Beaudoin, RN, BSN, IBCLC

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