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From:
Chris Mulford <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 17 Dec 2007 12:54:35 -0500
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One thing we could point out when people start talking about "mother's
choice" in infant feeding is the huge proportion of mothers in the U.S. and
elsewhere who DO choose to breastfeed and then lose their breastfeeding
because of the failure of the infrastructure to enable them to carry out
their choice. Aren't there research studies that document how many women
started supplementing or weaned earlier than they originally CHOSE, forced
by the barriers they encountered? Many women are formula feeding today who
CHOSE to breastfeed when their babies were younger, and then had to "choose"
formula because their backs were against the wall.

Another point about choice is that mothers make infant care and feeding
choices dozens of times every day...every time the baby indicates a need,
the mother (or other caregiver) has to make a choice of how to meet the
need. Breastfeeding is often the best answer, because of its nurturing and
soothing aspects in addition to its nutritive aspects, but it takes awhile
before some mothers and some families figure this out, especially if they
live in a non-breastfeeding culture. When they start choosing another food,
drink, or sucking object to meet a need that breastfeeding could have met,
this could be the top of a slippery slope to premature weaning. Maybe this
is partly because the baby is an actor in the "choice" process too. When the
baby discovers that the bottle, the formula, the complementary food, the
pacifier, or the thumb makes him or her feel OK, what does this mean for the
baby's devotion to breastfeeding? And we know that it's the baby who is
responsible for keeping up milk production through the "demand and supply"
system...

Step back to take a v-e-r-y long view with me. In one sense, all of life is
preparation for death...because we know that nobody lives forever. In the
same sense, all of breastfeeding is preparation for weaning, because no
child nurses forever...(unless they are victims of infant and young child
mortality). Looking at breastfeeding from this long view, it seems to me
that the challenge for mothers and babies is to find the right balance
between having the child at the breast and doing other things to meet the
child's needs (and because mothers have other things to do besides nurse
nurse nurse). This balance changes over time, as the child grows and
develops, gets new skills, has different experiences. And the balance is
unique for each mother-baby pair. Ultimately, though, there has to be enough
feeding and nurturing to support the baby's health and development, and
enough breastfeeding to sustain the mother's production, AND there has to be
enough space and time and energy for the mother to do the other "things she
has to do." As the role of mothers gets re-defined in the context of
changing economic and social patterns, it may seem that more and more "other
things the mother has to do" take priority over breastfeeding...and then
breastfeeding gets into trouble.

So, if we want to join in people's discussions about "mother's choice," it
may help us if we focus on describing the context in which that choice (or
those choices) must be made. What else does the culture define as so
important for a mother to do that she "has to" sacrifice breastfeeding for
it?


Chris

Chris Mulford, RN, BSN, IBCLC
LLL Leader Reserve
Chair of Workplace Committee, USBC
WABA Women & Work Task Force 

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