Leslie Ott, a certified lactation educator, who is working towards becoming a IBCLC has an idea that just may revolutionize American breastfeeding society and health care. She wants to create a non-profit organization to provide breastfeeding education, resources, lactation consultant services and support, breast pumps and supplies at little or no cost for low income and disadvantaged mothers. Her goal is to raise and extend the incidence of breastfeeding in the socioeconomic group with the lowest rates by providing everything to ensure breastfeeding success. She has submitted her idea to the popular website www.ideablob.com who gives away $10,000 to the idea with the most votes that month. You can view her idea at http://ideablob.com/ideas/5227-Human-Milk-for-Human-Babies. It takes no time to sign up and vote, and your vote can help her to change the world. So go do it!
Leslie’s particular cause is of genuine interest to me because it is something I am considering writing my entrance essay on for my focus area for applying for my Master’s degree in Social Work. I still need to do a fair amount of research on this and I need to take into consideration the differences between Candian and American culture (she is American and I am Canadian), but this particular question goes thorugh my mind a lot: Why do so many women living in poverty not breastfeed?
I don’t mean to typecast anyone with my ponderings today, but I see many mothers in my hometown with grocery carts full of pop and chips, Corn Pops and milk, two dozen donuts and cases of formula, and I think “What are you doing?!” Why are you buying that crap when your kids need nutritious food? Why aren’t you breastfeeding?” I don’t say these things out loud, and I do try to think up some valid reasons for why they are buying what they are buying, but their sugar-buldging carts make it too easy to question their judgment, and I don’t like to look at people judgmentally. So please help me figure out why some people live this way. And yes, I know my being nonplussed by people’s poor food choices doesn’t *really* have anything to do with breastfeeding vs. formula feeding, but there is a trend I have observed that people on low incomes have a tendency to buy the most non-nutrious foods, thus contributing to weight problems among this population. But this is a post for another day. I have a weakness for baked goods and ice cream so I’m not a saint, but I don’t live off it. Okay, enough ranting. Back to my breastfeeding-related musings…
I know there are a lot of women of all cultures and races who don’t have much money who do breastfeed and go on to breastfeed for a long time, but there are many who do not. So why is this? Is it a lack of maternity leave in the US? Too many free samples of formula being given out in hospitals and through WIC clinics? Then what about Canada? Is it a lack of education? Is our health care system failing to do its job in properly educating and supporting new moms to breastfeed? Is it discrimination? Are health care professionals assuming poor women won’t breastfeed or breastfeed for very long so they don’t push the issue? Is it a lack of social support? Is it a lack of services available to non-English speaking citizens or immigrants? Is it an issue of pride and not wanting to ask for help?
I’m a psychology major. I like to find out why things are the way they are, what makes people tick and why one person makes a certain choice over another, but rather than speak too much on any of these issues today I’d like to see what you have to say. You be the student and tell me what you think. Useful posts from others that I have come accross recently include Adventures in [Crunchy] Parenting on WIC and Infant Formula, and PhDinParenting’s Lactivism and the Homelessness Problem and The Economics of Breastfeeding: A Cost-Benefit Analysis, and this piece in the LA Times called Poor women receive less help for breastfeeding. Looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks.
Tags: bottle feeding, formula, IBCLC, Monday Musings, poverty
In IL, part of our Breastfeeding legislation passed in 04 provided for state-funded breastfeeding services through WIC. WIC provides, at no cost, lactation services and breastpumps to any mother who needs it.
Insurance also covers these services and breastpumps too (filed under Durable Medical Equipment on most plans.)
Of course, WIC also provide formula, so guess what most mothers choose? Yep. In fact, generally speaking, it’s the poorest people I know who buy the most formula. Breastfeeding has become somewhat of an elitist idea, to them.
When I watch the old Hurrican Katrina footage I think to myself – “if you were only breastfeeding, your baby wouldn’t have starved.” A woman has to be severely dehydrated and malnourished not to be able to provide breastmilk for her babies. It’s common knowledge that a breastfeeding mother keeps an extra 5-10 pounds of weight on as natures little “in case of emergency” storage.
But if your a formula feeder, all you have to do is run out of clean water and your baby can’t eat. What a shame. To have a perfect source of nutrition readily available from your very own body and NOT use it. Why?
And you don’t need to be poor or live in a hurrican zone for this to happen to you. 3 years ago there was a story of a woman who kept her 2 chilren (4 and 2) alive for days by breastfeeding them when their car got stuck in a snow drift. The husband went out to look for help and he died. But with no food or water, she kept her babies alive. Imagine that.
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@TheFeministBreeder – Thank you so much for your excellent comment. I am working on another piece similar to this about what is happening in Africa and other developing countries as formula companies have pushed themselves on a breastfeeding culture and decreased breastfeeding rates while infant mortality climbs due to a lack of clean water. Shame.
The book “Nickel and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich did a good job of explaining why people living in poverty often eat less-than-optimal food. It’s a combination of cheap calories, lack of facilities and/or time for cooking, and not much understanding of nutrition. If you’re working a lot for low pay and living in cramped quarters, you’re simply not going to buy a bunch of dried beans, brown rice, kale and spices and cook from scratch. You can eat healthy food very cheaply, but it takes effort and resources that not everyone has.
Amber’s last blog post..Maternity Leave in Norway
Feminist Breeder – interesting you say that breastfeeding has become an elitist idea. Historically, rich people set the fashion, then poor people aspire to it. When doctors first started attending births in the home, it was a status symbol, rather than the poor, dirty midwife. Then, when birth moved into the hospitals, it was for luxury, while the poor people stayed in their dirty homes to birth in pain. Eventually hospital birth became the standard that all could achieve. Same with labor pain meds, same with c-sections. Anything perceived as a “luxury” will be the desirable choice, and manufacturers would do well to make it universally available. And now, formula feeding is the standard, and breastfeeding has been typically seen as poor, dirty, and vulgar.
Now that breastfeeding is coming back en vogue, I wonder how that will affect the lower classes, or if they are too entrenched in the FF culture to turn back. Or like you said, if there will be a backlash against BF as being too “uppity.” And there are the other barriers against BFing, such as work environment, maternity leave, education, support, and so on. But I guess that’s why this is a musing.
Emily Jones’s last blog post..Monday Munchies
I’ve thought about this a lot (as evidenced by the post of mine that you linked to – thank you for that).
I think in a lot of cases (not all, but many) it is about the global lack of resources that women living in poverty have. By that I mean that financial resources aren’t the only thing that they are lacking. For example:
- They lack education, which might have allowed them to make better choices about their child’s nutrition.
- They lack genuine support (larger number of single moms among the poor, larger number of abused moms among the poor, greater change of being treated poorly by their boss in minimum wage jobs, etc.).
- They lack time to cook, bake, peel vegetables, cut up fruit, etc. because they are working two or three jobs, so they buy convenience food instead.
Healthy food is more affordable in some places than others and it also takes time and literacy to be able to compare prices, pick and choose what is in season, and do it without breaking the family budget. The blog http://www.5dollardinners.com does a great job of putting together ideas and recipes on how to feed a family of four on $5 each night ($5 dollars for the whole family, not per person), but it does take time, education, and planning to do something like that, which is not a luxury everyone has.
Annie @ PhD in Parenting’s last blog post..The Economics of Breastfeeding: A Cost-Benefit Analysis
Thank You for letting your readers know of my goal and appreciate the support for what I intend to accomplish. As far as breastfeeding coming to be “en vogue” whatever happens I hope it doesn’t just become a “trend” that goes away. When I was pregnant I was so oblivious to what was breastfeeding that while shopping in babies r us my husband bought a couple cans preparing for our babies’ arrival. Because I had issues establishing BF and pediatricians telling me I was starving my baby because I had no milk I looking in to it further, the more I learned and than succeeded in BF the more I wanted to become educated. Therefore bringing me to where I am now. There are plenty of women who would have liked to continue breastfeeding but stopped because of problems that were mismanaged, no support & the lack of correct advice. I want to change this by helping the everyday mom. The mother who is single or working or doesn’t have the resources to invest in help to succeed in breastfeeding. Then we can delve in to their places of employment and change the support to breastfeeding women and therefore mothers for the better. Pumps & Lactation Consultants cost money. With WIC offering formula and all the samples coming from every angle it can seem easier to put a bottle in their babies mouth. What we need to do is educate & empower women. Breastfeeding is the most feminist thing a women can do! Taking the right to feed their babies the most healthy, enviornmentally friendly, cost effective, emotionally bonding food available and keeping the right to nourish their babies away from a formula corporation who is literally only in it for the money.
Our babies deserve so much more than a convenience food in a can that won’t do us any good when water supplies are contaminated or there isn’t enough to last the week.
I personally think that some of the reason has to do with the marketing of those types of foods… like sugary cereals that are fortified with vitamins and minerals. We live in a “I should get to do/eat/watch/say what I want” type world and some people (even ones who know better) will eat junk just because they want to and it is easier and then expect to be able to take vitamins that make up for what they don’t get from food… and the medical field kind of enables that behavior by not pointing out that many illnesses and problems we experience in our bodies have to do so much with the food we are putting into our bodies. Instead they prescribe medicine and so the real problem is never fixed, the symptoms just get muted for a time. Also, I know of some moms that either don’t BF at all or only do for a short time because they want to get back to being able to drink, smoke or the like, so I wonder if some of the impoverished mothers are those with substance abuse issues and choose to formula feed so they can or because they have to get back to an addiction? Just a thought… Anyways, I guess what I want to say is I think a lot of it is due to our selfish natures and unless you care more about providing your baby with the most healthy food choice you are likely to choose formula because it is marketed to be the more convenient but just as healthy (hey even your doctor gives you free samples so how bad could it be) way to feed your baby.
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This is something I’ve been thinking about lately also. I think one factor could be the lack of resources for moms who work. My observation (and I hate to stereotype too much here and risk offending someone) is that the types of jobs that lower income mothers have may be less conducive to pumping and fewer facilities are available. It seems that some more professional occupations may have a bit more flexibility and opportunity.
Resources in the workplace are my pet peeve right now as I’m hoping to get some formalized support at my facility right now, so maybe that’s all I can see
I voted for Leslie’s idea. I hope her idea gets funded!
Cilla’s last blog post..What socks are good for:
When Dr. Jack Newman spoke in Israel, he mentioned that mothers who plan to breastfeed end up buying more formula than those who start out bottle-feeding. The bottle-feeding moms switch to cow’s milk as early as four months, while the ones who start out breastfeeding (and usually fail, as we know) are more likely to follow AAP recommendations to use formula until a year or longer. By the way he opposes those recommendations and says that there’s no need for formula after six months, if the baby is eating a well-balanced diet.
What an awesome blog & video! Thanks for my comment
Hi im from England and the mother of two girls that i breastfeed for 15 months despite much discouragement from all around me. Im currently training to be a breastfeeding support worker and yes the research shows that women from poor backgrounds especially young and of limited education dont breastfed. As you said the question is WHY? It seems many things have a role in this. Some feel that breastfeeding is repulsive, they worry about how they will feed the baby in public, others simply dont know how to and are given little if no help to do do. Lack of education it seems is the biggest problem breastfeeding is normal for mom to do yet clever advertising has convinced moms that formula milk is just as good and no education is given as to the serious risks with giving formula. Until more help, education, money and resources is given by our governments to help once again the it is the poor that suffer. Whats really sad is America the country that claims to be educated and foremost in the world for health has still not adopted the WHO code unlike Britain. This would mean that companies would not be allowed to advertise any food or milk aimed at babies less than 6 months or for any free samples to be given to moms or health care workers. Also that the risks of formula be clearly given and that exclusive breastfeeding be recommended.
Im sure if your government adopted this into their law it would help with the breastfeeding rates.
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Hi im from England and the mother of two girls that i breastfeed for 15 months despite much discouragement from all around me. Im currently training to be a breastfeeding support worker and yes the research shows that women from poor backgrounds especially young and of limited education dont breastfed. As you said the question is WHY? It seems many things have a role in this. Some feel that breastfeeding is repulsive, they worry about how they will feed the baby in public, others simply dont know how to and are given little if no help to do do. Lack of education it seems is the biggest problem breastfeeding is normal for mom to do yet clever advertising has convinced moms that formula milk is just as good and no education is given as to the serious risks with giving formula. Until more help, education, money and resources is given by our governments to help once again the it is the poor that suffer. Whats really sad is America the country that claims to be educated and foremost in the world for health has still not adopted the WHO code unlike Britain. This would mean that companies would not be allowed to advertise any food or milk aimed at babies less than 6 months or for any free samples to be given to moms or health care workers. Also that the risks of formula be clearly given and that exclusive breastfeeding be recommended.
Im sure if your government adopted this into their law it would help with the breastfeeding rates.
I wrote about the info in this article a few months ago in one of my many “Formula Sux!” rants. Some horrifying information about how many babies have died from formula feeding in Botswana….
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....01204.html
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@ Emily Jones – I picture it something like this. Breastfeeding moms look like pushy snobs to the uneducated formula feeders, so they “buck the trend” by formula feeding. I cannot tell you how many online communities I’ve been a part of where poverty-line-level women bitch, bitch, bitch about the snotty breasfeeding “Nazis.” They don’t even want to hear how breastfeeding is better. They (honest to god) will say “yeah, well I bet my formula-fed baby can kick your breastfed baby’s ass.” Super classy. You gotta hang out on Ivillage…. these comments can be seen in every single playgroup as soon as breastfeeding comes up.
I grew up in what you could call total white-trash, and none ONE member of my entire family (who all live on food stamps, btw) would ever consider breastfeeding because “those yuppies” do that, according to them. And if WIC is paying for the formula, then why bother?
TheFeministBreeder’s last blog post..Slow Economy = Fast Expiration Date?
I love all the input and everyone has given! Great discussion here.
@Bonnie – You hit the nail on the head with your comment about food marketing and the medical and health fields who enable food companies to advertise misleading info to consumers who, if they see “fortified with 7 essential nutrients” think “this must be good for me” regardless of the amount of sugar, salt or fat in the product. As far as your thought about addicts wanting to get back to their habit – I’m sure it is true for some and not for others – just as most things are, but I have a story to share.
My friend’s sister is a street nurse who was working with a pregnant women who said she was really excited whenever she got pregnant because she suddenly had new veins in her belly to inject into. Yikes hey?
Melodie’s last blog post..Monday Musings: Why Do So Many Women Living in Poverty Not Breastfeed??
Gosh, which questions to help you answer…..hmmm…it seems that everyone has an opinion on the nutrition part and what they are putting in their carts….which in my case, some of the statements were true. I don’t know that I ever did a bunch of sugar, however, I did do lots of Ramen Noodles, canned food because I just didn’t have the appliances to keep refrigerated food at one time. In my younger years, sugar was pretty common, that was probably lack of education, but even more so, a lack of care. I looked at it this way, I wanted to eat what I liked, I wasn’t going to make my kid eat something that I didn’t like. As far as the not breastfeeding part, well, there are a lot of factors. There are many reasons that women, no matter what their financial situation decide not to breastfeed, or don’t breastfeed for the entire year. I have never breastfed up to the first year. Shortly after each of my children, I had to go back to work. It seemed that breast pumps just didn’t keep my milk supply up. I have a really hard time with breast pumps and usually end up hand expressing when I do have to pump…which takes a rather long time when you only have a 30 minute lunch break. In today’s world, at least I can speak for the American culture, there are just lots of women out there that for some reason or another don’t understand the bonding that comes from breastfeeding. Or maybe they do, and they don’t desire that. I also know that the support system in the U.s. for smaller towns is almost nonexistent. I can go to my WIC office and ask for assistance with breastfeeding….which by the way was never offered before. However, other lactation consultants are no where nearby. I have known lots of women who gave up because of the pain or the frustration of it. And, despite the ease that I find in breastfeeding in the early months, some women just don’t see it as a convenience. To them, it is easier to get up and make a bottle then to stuggle with breastfeeding. We live in such a different time and world than it used to be. Breastfeeding used to be pretty much the only option. It’s just not that way anymore. The average American family eats out MORE than once a week….we Americans seem to really be in a hurry I suppose and want everything to be done and over now….I don’t know if this answered a thing you wanted to know….I ramble a lot, sorry….
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Hi! I’m from SEAsia and still breastfeeding my 17th month old. I live in the 3rd world and we are the major market of the multinational formula companies. We have various formulas – 0-6mos; 6-12mos; 1-3years; 4-7years. Then another set of formula for pregnant moms, nursing moms, older folks, etc. etc. the list goes on. This video is an eye-opener. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNYDPKQOVUE
I think Cilla’s point was a very good one–breastfeeding is impossible if you have to work in a situation that isn’t conducive to pumping/milk storage. I’m an attorney at a big law firm, so I can pump in my private, locked office, and store my milk in any of the communal refrigerators (or the special refrigerator in the “mother’s room”). I can take as many breaks as I need to for pumping (and some days, I need to pump 5 times to get enough milk for the next day). I couldn’t have it ANY better, but pumping is still a challenge. In fact, all the other moms I know at the firm switched to formula at 7 months or younger, because they thought it was too much trouble! So imagine if the working mom is a waitress, or a janitor, or a bus driver–how in the heck would she pump? Of course this doesn’t explain the whole problem, but I think it’s part of the puzzle. We will not see higher breastfeeding rates in the poor U.S. population until we make the workplace extremely breastfeeding-friendly.