I have great respect for mothers who mainly or solely pump for long periods
of time for their babies. I cannot imagine having to regularly, as one
mother in our LLL multiples group called it, "feed the ugly baby." There can
be a number of physical, emotional and/or social reasons for this option.
But it isn't "breastfeeding" and I think it does need to be distinguished
from breastfeeding -- which I too often have to put the word "direct" in
front of anymore.  OTOH, I rarely refer to "bottle-feeding" these days
(unless talking nipple/teat flow rates) because, while an accurate term for
feeding method, what is in the bottle does make a difference and it still
implies formula for many/most people. So if of use to anyone else, I use the
terms:"Breastfeeding" (as in milk transfer via direct communication between
baby's mouth and the breast)
"Breastmilk-feeding" or "mother's milk feeding" or "expressed breastmilk
feeding" (EBMF) -- usually for bottle-feeding of mother's own milk
"Human milk feeding" -- could be mom's, could be donor milk
"Formula feeding" or "artificial milk feeding."

I'm concerned re: the effect on research when operational definitions aren't
used or breastfeeding and EBMF are lumped together. Milk changes somewhat
once out of the breast and exposed to air, refrigeration, freezing,
reheating, etc. In addition to its physical properties, there are other
aspects that may be affected by how the infant received his/her mother's
milk. For example, tthere was a research report that came out earlier this
year looking at child cognitive dev't, which reached significance for better
if the child had been BF, but the authors wondered how much was related to
process and how much to product. Good question and one that is also being
asked re: childhood obesity stats -- how much is product and how much may be
feeding process? How can the impact of breastfeeding as a variable be
analyzed if the researcher doesn't tell us what was meant by the word
"breastfeeding" -- or has no clue that breastfeeding vs. EBMF may be two
different variables?

I think terminology is important when it comes to distinguishing not just
what an infant was fed but how it was fed. And either we encourage, insist
that different terms be used for the different "methods," or we'll have to
accept that "breastfeeding" may encompass process and/or product.

Karen Gromada
www.karengromada.com/

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