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Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
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Wed, 4 Mar 2009 00:37:15 +0000
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>"Medela speaks the language of the generation."
>
>I am running out of the office, but wanted to add my .02 worth.  I may
>regret that tomorrow if I find myself unindated with hate mail


Linda, no one (surely) is going to send you 'hate mail' either 
privately or on Lactnet.

But while I understand you want to help mothers and babies make the 
most of whatever version of 'breastfeeding' appears available to 
them, I suspect I won't be the only one profoundly disagreeing with 
you.

You equate an acceptance of pumping to an acceptance of technological 
change, and a discomfort with the increase in gadgetry (like pumps) 
to people who have 'refused to learn and adapt to computers'. I can't 
think of a less appropriate analogy, or a sadder one.

Computers and IT generally are A Good Thing. They make it possible 
for us to communicate on Lactnet, for a start :)  'Moving with the 
times' is the argument that was used to promote formula - and still 
is, in fact. In the UK, a major brand is advertised on TV with a 
father doing the voice over, promising to 'do the night feeds' - 
keying into the modern notion that today's fathers do their share, 
with the tacit message that mothers who want to do their own night 
feeds, thank you very much, must be rejecting this 'new man'.

You ask us to 'meet mothers where they are at' - but what if they are 
'at' where they are 'at' because of commercial, political, social and 
other forces placing them there? Most mothers do not voluntarily want 
the incredible hassle and distancing from their infants that comes 
with pumping. They are 'at' that place because of poor employment 
protection, because in some places, 'public' breastfeeding is 
uncomfortable for them...or because truly despicable advertising and 
marketing tell them it's all lovely and modern and technological and 
'free' to use a gadget and a freezer and a bottle to feed their 
babies.

Who's going to speak up for the other view? For the easier, closer, 
physiological and physical and milkier connections between mothers 
and babies? For the 'old' idea that human relationships begin at the 
breast, and that love (and, as we now know, life-long emotional and 
mental well-being) begins with getting to know and trust one special 
person who responds to you and who teaches you that you are *you* and 
are worthy of love?

Of course these wonderful experiences and lessons can be learnt with 
bottles of ebm (or formula, come to that) - but  pumping and using 
pumped milk makes it harder for them to happen, and use of the pump 
takes up time and space in life which could be spent doing other more 
life-enhancing activities than sitting at a machine extracting milk.

Employers can somehow gain Brownie points for 'allowing' pumping 
stations at work (instead of 'allowing' decent, lengthy maternity 
leave and flexible working), and mothers are told (frequently) there 
is no need to respond to a baby's need for milk and closeness at the 
breast when they are outside the home because they can 'pump and take 
a bottle with them'.

In short, the use of a pump becomes not a liberation, but an oppression.

Linda, you ask:
  > Isnt it at least better
>that they are getting breastmilk????   YES!


I'd agree, of course...but I wouldn't celebrate it, not the way it is 
actively promoted.

>We are to provide information
>to the pts, not make the choices for them.  Just because "X" worked for me
>and in my opinion is the best way to do things, doesnt mean that "X" is the
>best choice for them!

Now that I do feel uncomfortable with, on a personal level, sorry. My 
feelings about this have nothing to do with what 'worked' for me, or 
with me telling people I know what is best for them. I don't work 
like that.  My feelings are based on observation, on what I know 
about infant and maternal well-being, and on how I know markets work.

The breastfeeding support world should be working against the 
unethical marketing of pumps, and be very clear-eyed about what's 
happening when unethical marketing is permitted.  We, of all people, 
should know the effects of it.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK

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