Michael Feldman hosts a "quiz show" on NPR- part goofiness, part
silliness, part actual knowledge- but I suspect he might deny that
last claim. The show's site is
<http://notmuch.com/Speak/Mail/michael.html> er, or just
<http://notmuch.com>. He has sounded supportive of breastfeeding in
the past- he has two teenage or pre-teen daughters, and in general
pokes fun at himself, himself, his relationship with his wife and
daughters, his religion, himself, and his listeners and guests.
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Your question on the show originally broadcast near July 4 (of what
year I don't know) "what european country has the highest
breastfeeding non-initiation rates?" (although you phrased it somewhat
differently) identified "England" as the lowest with 29%. I assume
you were lumping all of the British Isles into one group or doing
*something* that skewed the data. According to
<http://www.babyfriendly.org.uk/ukstats.asp>, the overall initiation
rate of the "UK" is 69%, hence 31% of new mothers never attempt to
breastfeed. Northern Ireland has an initiation rate of 54%, so a
non-initiation rate of a whopping 46%- yikes! Almost half of Irish
babies never receive a drop of their mother's milk!
You mentioned the high rates of breastfeeding initiation in Sweden,
but commented that the Norwegians "weren't comfortable" with their
rates. In fact, both Norway and Sweden are reported as having over
98% of mothers initiate breastfeeding. While the initiation rates by
Swedish mothers declined with 20th century medical model deliveries,
the rate did not decline in Norway. For over 270 years, according to
my US born Norwegian midwife & IBCLC friend, the rates of
breastfeeding initiation have been over 98% in Norway. To
Norwegians, to say they don't plan to breastfeed is akin to saying
they don't plan to "mother".
Breastfeeding initiation rates in the US barely top out at over 1/2-
only 57% of mothers initiate breastfeeding, meaning 43% do not attempt
to breastfeed. These rates vary dramatically by location in the US-
Boulder, Colorado has very high rates of initiation, over 85%, as
shown by <http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/ps/mch/mchadmin/mchdatasets2003/BreastfeedMap.pdf#search=%22boulder%20colorado%20breastfeeding%20initiation%20rates%22>
and, no where in Colorado do initiation rates fall below 42.5%. Of
course, those of us who know the risks of not breastfeeding are happy
to see most of the state showing a majority of mothers initiating
breastfeeding.
I was not disappointed with your response to your quiz taking guest
who reported she had breastfed for a week- you answered, "just when
you got the hang of it you quit". I hope your answer didn't offend
her- I imagine she was not well supported in the early days of
breastfeeding, had likely never had a family member who was able to
breastfeed successfully, and did not know where to get effective help.
I suspect she had a lot of conflicting feelings about her experience
and maybe felt guilty. I believe your response to her did not
violate her privacy, but did acknowledge her success at providing milk
to her child for a week but likely indicated to other new mothers that
breastfeeding does take time to learn.. When we, as a culture, are
better able to understand lactation, the value of mother's milk to
children, and what we need to do to support the right of all children
to mother's milk, we will see healthier babies being fed mother's milk
for longer and longer periods, and fewer mothers weaning prematurely.
We will see fewer mothers hiding to nurse their children, and hear
fewer people disparaging mothers who feed their babies whereever and
whenever they happen to be hungry.
--
--
-Kate, http://systems.cs.colorado.edu/~kolina/advantages-of-formula.html
Mom to Ursula (11.5), Sage (9!), Benno (5)
In Scandinavian countries, breastfeeding in public places is nothing
special. Nobody frowns on it; it's just not an issue. The
breastfeeding rates are very high (which is so good!). In Norway for
example, 99% of the mothers are breastfeeding at one month, 89% at 3
months, and 85% at six months. In fact, in Norway the society is
gone the other way from the United States, and you're stigmatised if
you don't fully breastfeed your baby at six months and if you
introduce solids before six months.
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