Kathleen Bruce wrote on October 20 about the NY Times op-ed article of Sunday, October 18 (on line version dated October 16) “Overselling Breast-Feeding” by Courtney Jung and shared her own response.
Today the NY Times published letters also responding to the article, 2 supportive, 2 raising concerns. (One from Julie Taylor, President of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, and another from Dr. Alicia Dermer, who used to post on Lactnet).
See http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/opinion/the-choices-over-breast-feeding.html?ref=todayspaper <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/opinion/the-choices-over-breast-feeding.html?ref=todayspaper>
I found the response to the Courtney Jung article written by Casey Rowen-Carole, MD, MPH on the Breastfeeding Medicine blog to be very thoughtful.
See https://bfmed.wordpress.com/2015/10/18/promotion-without-support-a-reply-to-editorials-that-attack-breastfeeding-advocacy/ <https://bfmed.wordpress.com/2015/10/18/promotion-without-support-a-reply-to-editorials-that-attack-breastfeeding-advocacy/>
Unfortunately, the responses to her post descend into the all-too-frequent furious attacks. There is so much pain and anger expressed by those who feel they have been labeled bad mothers for not breastfeeding. We need to acknowledge the hurt they are feeling. But what happens is that out of that hurt, they attack the studies and the science that supports the benefits of breastfeeding. I think we also need to demand that studies clearly differentiate between exclusive, partial and minimal or no breastfeeding before making comparisons in outcomes, and clearly state breastfeeding duration as well. When studies find no differences, we often find that the breastfed group included those who were EVER breastfed, even if it was of very short duration or included formula as well. And mode of feeding, (at breast, by bottle or cup, etc). needs to be tracked too. Otherwise, comparisons are meaningless, and resulting minimal differences in outcomes are seized upon by those who wish to discredit or deny breastfeeding benefits.
We need to remind the media that those mothers who really want to breastfeed frequently do not meet their goals in terms of duration and exclusivity, and we need to focus more on breaking down societal barriers that make that the case.
Anne Altshuler
Madison, WI, USA
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