Marketing Breastfeeding—Reversing Corporate Influence on Infant Feeding Practices
5 stars based on
38 reviews
First of all, I am a vocal, longtime, public advocate of breastfeeding as a critical infant-maternal and public health issue. In fact, I even wrote a relatively popular book that is chock full of info on the hows and whys of breastfeeding. Lately, I am disappointed with, and somewhat baffled by an anti-breastfeeding meme that I think started with this Hanna Rosin article in The Atlanticand is now being repeated in all kinds of other ways in the mainstream parenting media.
Although I credit these companies with doing a better job in recent years of formulating their product to be safer than it was back in the late s, these companies are still not meeting their ethical obligations relative to the obscene amounts of money they are raking in on this unbelievably lucrative product.
Then I went on to nurse my second baby for more than 4 years. My third baby weaned from the breast at about three years, while my fourth baby was breastfed for 13 months not coincidentally, she was the first baby I breastfed while also working at a demanding, full time job, outside the home. Having said all of that, I am currently exclusively formula feeding my fifth child, Baby G, now seven months old. G was born six weeks early on June 27th of last year, only 3 weeks after my oldest child died after a lengthy, stressful hospitalization.
I did not and do not feel guilty about this, and no one has ever acted like I should feel guilty. Thus, I turned to the most reasonable replacement option, which in my particular case was commercial infant formula. I have both breastfed and formula fed my babies. I have been a stay at home, exclusively breastfeeding mom, and I have been a full-time, work outside the home pumping, breastfeeding mom.
And now I have been a full time, working, formula feeding mom for the last six months. That is a given, and represents the context for my thoughts on OTHER, more logistical aspects of the breastfeeding vs.
Okay, lengthy prologue over. Without further ado, I give you my super honest, highly personal comparison of what the experience of breastfeeding vs. The only money I ever spent on breastfeeding was a few hundred bucks for a breastpump this was for child 4.
LLL Leaders are volunteers, so their consultation and advice is — you guessed it — free. Anyone can call herself a Lactation Consultant. After the first week or two of engorgement, baby learning to nurse, etc, I found breastfeeding to be super easy and low stress.
No bottles to wash, formula to prepare, stuff to pack when you were going somewhere with the baby. If I needed my nursing child to fall asleep, whether it was in a movie theater or at bedtime, I just offered my breast. If I needed her to stop crying, whether from a toddler meltdown or a skinned knee, I just nursed her, and she suddenly felt that all was right with the world.
For me, breastfeeding offered moments of actual physical euphoria, which I recognized as an oxytocin rush. With my first babies, I was more from trade bottle than breastfeeding of unsure of what I was supposed to be doing. Has anyone else experienced this? You might not have had any of these logistical bothers or frustrations with nursing, but I did.
Yes, I had a high quality pump. Yes, I knew how to do it. Yes, I looked at photos of my baby, etc, etc. None of that ameliorated the hatred I had for affixing a breastpump to my breasts.
While I pumped, More from trade bottle than breastfeeding felt more from trade bottle than breastfeeding clawing my eyes out. It felt a little like having a low grade anxiety attack, so unnatural did the pump flange feel pulling on my boobs.
The whole thing was very puzzling; how could I love nursing my baby so much, and find it relaxing and pleasant, but find the mechanical version of the same activity so appallingly distasteful? I have no idea. Even some working moms manage to do that with flexible scheduling. So yeah, I hated breastpumping to a pathological, slightly bizarro degree. Your mileage may vary.
Let me be more from trade bottle than breastfeeding that I am one of those super indiscreet, public breastfeeders of more from trade bottle than breastfeeding type people complain about on the interwebz, meaning that when I was nursing, I never used drapes, or hid myself away in other rooms unless my baby seemed to want some quiet in order to eat.
But even though I was bold, I still had to choose my clothing more carefully any time I left the house, not to cover anything up, but simply so that I could get to my breasts at all.
This annoyance became even trickier when I was working full time, and pumping at work with baby 4. All work wardrobe items had to allow for boob access without a more from trade bottle than breastfeeding strip down. That ruled out any sort of one piece sheath, and lots of other cute items that Ann Taylor had on sale. Again, this is a highly personal issue. Formula feeding is just a huge hassle.
The bottles, the nipples, carrying around enough powdered formula for outings, making sure you remember bottles and formula when you travel. The list goes on and on…. As she grows and eats more, her diet becomes exponentially more from trade bottle than breastfeeding expensive each month. Our whole family longingly waits for the day when she is weaned from the stuff and we can find out what she actually smells like.
Granted, you can trade off night feedings with someone else, unlike if you were exclusively breastfeeding. But on the other hand, when I was night-nursing my breastfed, co-sleeping babies, I barely woke up to feed them, snuggled up next to me.
Plus, nasty smelling infant formula inevitably ends up dripping onto my sheets and pillows. So there you have it. I look back on breastfeeding my babies as some of the most precious parenting hours of my life. For us, her food is more about, well, getting fed, while breastfeeding felt like a food-plus kind of deal between me and the babies.
So here we go. Donning my flame proof suit now, sans nursing openings, of course, since I am formula feeding and can wear whatever I darn well please.
Where am I all wrong? Or alternatively, in what ways did your feeding more from trade bottle than breastfeeding mirror mine?
As a breastfeeding advocate, should I have written this blog post at all? Or was it irresponsible? Should I only talk about the parts of breastfeeding that I loved, and the things about formula feeding that I hate? And how about you? My Personal Pros and Cons. Facebook Twitter Tumblr Pinterest. What do you think? Your More from trade bottle than breastfeeding name, profile photo and other personal information you make public on Facebook e.
Videos You May Like. Content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical or health, safety, legal or financial advice. Click here for additional information.
