Disclaimer: I’m about to get all social work-y and academic on you today. I’m playing student as I examine social oppression its relationship with breastfeeding and formula feeding in Canada.
Recent health promotion campaigns have encouraged people to adopt healthier lifestyles (quit smoking, breastfeed, eat well, etc.) but less attention has been given to promoting the physical and social environments that enhance our health and well being.
To increase breastfeeding rates…
At a macro (government) policy level we need:
- Increased wages for entry-level jobs so families can better afford to have the mom stay at home for her full maternity leave (in Canada this is one year).
- Increased mandatory breastfeeding education for all health care providers.
- Increased government funding for quality child care -> decreased out-of-pocket cost for parents.
- Increased media support for breastfeeding campaigns
At a mico (individual) level we need:
- Increased accommodations for breastfeeding mothers at work. While it is more rare in Canada for a woman to return to work before her year-long maternity leave is over, some women have to return to work earlier. It is therefore necessary to at least have a workplace policy on breastfeeding. Our local health authority! does not have any policy on workplace accommodations for breastfeeding mothers which I find appalling.
- Increased welcoming attitudes by breastfeeding support groups for Women of Colour, women with a disability, working mothers and other women of minority.
- More businesses with policies that welcome breastfeeding mothers in their stores.
- Increased public support of breastfeeding, especially past six months or one year.
Breastfeeding moms in North America have a legal right to breastfeed anytime, anywhere. We know this and would like everyone else who isn’t a breastfeeding mom to know this too. We are tired of fighting for the right to have our rights recognized and accepted by others. We are tired of hearing about another breastfeeding mom who was ridiculed for breastfeeding in public or asked to leave a public place or move to a restroom or private nursing room in order to feed her baby. We are tired of improper employer conduct based on outdated or non-existant policies. It’s 2009 and it’s time everyone got with the program. Breast milk is the best food for babies and boobs aren’t lewd, they’re food.
But aside from the need to improve breastfeeding rates and attitudes, are breastfeeding moms as a group oppressed? I don’t think so. In Canada, the prevalence of breastfeeding tends to rise with education and household income. Generally, breastfeeding mothers are educated, middle to upper class, over the age of 25, and partnered [Source]. While breastfeeding moms may get discriminated against, especially when nursing in public, discrimination is not oppression. And when a breastfeeding mom has difficulties, it is usually the more privileged mom who gets the help she needs and can continue on with breastfeeding.
When a woman has difficulty breastfeeding, this private trouble can go in one of two directions: Either she gets help and remedies the problem or she stops. Some of the barriers mothers experience in being able to successfully breastfeed from the start are found in the hospitals they deliver their baby in. Sometimes the blame is placed on an individual (mom couldn’t produce enough milk, partner wasn’t supportive, baby couldn’t latch, etc) but often the problem stems from larger problems in the health care system. At a macro level, government reductions to spending on health and social welfare mean staff cuts – less staff have to do more work and there just aren’t enough people to do a thorough job. Conservative trends support focus on less government support and more individual, family and community-based efforts (like LLL, new mom groups, public health). But if someone doesn’t refer the mom to any community-based program, this public issue - quality health care – becomes a private trouble when moms don’t get the help they need.
Now let’s take a look at formula feeding moms. A lot of people come down on moms for formula feeding. Some formula feeding moms come down on themselves. But if we take a structural approach to formula feeding and look at it as a public issue instead of a private one, we will soon see that a number of factors might influence formula use.
To look at choosing formula as only an individual choice is to ignore all other sources of the problem: media (advertising), health care system (cut backs and lack of breastfeeding education), economy (need to return to work early to make ends meet), social pressure (family, friends, society), the current conservative politics that drive all of the above and of course the invisible walls of patriarchy, and where applicable, ableism, racism and sexism. Or should I just say kyriarchy?
Poverty
Not all moms who use formula live in poverty or are even low-income, but generally speaking many are. When a person lives in poverty they lack the resources more privileged people do. They generally have less education. They are marginalized in their jobs. They often can’t afford to take off a full year’s maternity leave, that is if they get one at all. In Canada one must work an equivalent of six months full time work outside the home to be eligible for maternity leave benefits, and even then, if your employer doesn’t “top up” those benefits you only get a fraction of what you were making before you took time off. Women who work low-wage paying jobs are often in the kind of job where it isn’t very easy to pump on breaks. If a poor woman has breastfeeding difficulties she has even more barriers stacked against her. In Canada, with our universal health care system, many lactation consultants work for hospitals or public health provide free help to anyone who needs it. However, there is still cost. Transportation is a major issue for many low-income families. Many moms don’t own or have access to a computer so don’t have the online resources so many of us rely on nowadays. Therefore, it is usually the moms who can afford services and know they exist who get the help, fix their problem and go on to breastfeed.
Race
In the United States African-American mothers are less likely to even initiate breastfeeding than white mothers. In Canada women of colour also have lower breastfeeding rates. A recent collection of anecdotal evidence in my area has shown that breastfeeding rates among local First Nations groups are declining.
Age
Mothers under 20 are also less likely to initiate breastfeeding.
Internalized Oppression
Internalized oppression is when individuals internalize positive messages about a dominant group and negative messages about themselves and their cultural group. This integration of negative stereotypes results in feelings of inferiority, shame, and self-hate, which then underlie the development of patterns of self-destructive behaviour [Link]. When a nurse unconsciously but discriminatingly assumes a woman of colour will formula feed and the patient assumes that’s what she should do because that’s what everyone else does, regardless of what is best or her curiosity, if she doesn’t speak out, this is internalized oppression.
Internalized Dominance is when people in the dominant culture come to see the effects of colonization as normal or natural and are unable to see their privilege. They assume that everyone shares their view of the order of things, including stereotypes of colonized peoples and the view of history as written by the colonizers. Health care professionals can have internalized dominance over patients. Inappropriate hospital practices and the promotion of formula are a form of violence towards women. Violations of a woman’s right to breastfeed, including not receiving her permission to give her infant formula or giving her false information can be seen as a violating of a woman’s human rights. To read more about the feminist approach to equality for breastfeeding, please see this post.
So are moms who formula feed oppressed?
What do you think?
Related posts:
- Links To Some Great Breastfeeding Posts
- Feminism and Equality For Breastfeeding Women
- Monday Musings: How Hospitals Contribute to Lower Breastfeeding Rates
- Canadian Breastfeeding Protection Petition
- Monday Musings: Why Do So Many Women Living in Poverty Not Breastfeed??
Tags: breastfeeding rights, discrimination, First Nations, formula, health, kyriarchy, poverty, race, social oppression
While I agree with much of what you wrote, there are a couple points that I disagree with. Much of my disagreement may come from my POV as a US Citizen, and looking at it from a macro-policy perspective as it applies to this country.
I don’t think it’s the government’s responsibility to provide higher pay for entry-level jobs so a mom can be more likely to stay home and breastfeed. That’s ludicrous to me. Entry-level jobs are just that, and are paid accordingly. Overpaying the people doing those jobs for the purpose of allowing them an easier lifestyle, noble as that may be, just isn’t appropriate.
I’d make the same point with regard to child care. Our kids should be our own financial responsibility, not that of the government.
Again, this is all coming from a US perspective, so it’s quite a different situation here. They’re points I think are worth discussing, though.
Amy (@HappyMomAmy)´s last blog ..You Need the Bubbles!
I agree, particularily with regards to wages and child care. The fact is, not everyone is going to have a high paying job, even if they are of average intelligence and are hard working. There are more crap-paying jobs than good paying ones, and should the children of those families be malnourished because minimum wage is only about a quarter of a living wage? I know that if I worked out of the home I could not make enough money to cover the expenses of working out of the home, and that I never would have overcome my breastfeeding obstacles without constantly working on it, and we’d not be 6 months exclusive breastfed at this point. :-/
I’m also from the US, but originally British, so I’m interested by Amy’s comments. I agree with her that it’s really not the government’s job to make entry level pay higher, especially not for mothers specifically (that’s not workplace equality – quite the opposite.) That’s social engineering which I’m against, even though statistically it has merits.
However, I DO think that entry level pay is disgustingly low – especially in the USA. My wife is trying to rejoin the workforce and with her level of education, it’s simply impossible to find a job that covers the cost of daycare by more than a few bucks – meaning she’d be working full time for the ‘privilege’ of letting somebody else raise our baby.
I think a full time job should, at a very minimum, pay a ‘living wage’ and in the USA, that’s not true. In fact, with more jobs NOT offering health care and benefits, it’s going totally in the wrong direction. I’m not for socialism in any way, shape or form – but when a business with a million dollar annual profit refuses to pay its managers (who work 60 hours weeks) more than $35,000 a year, something’s WRONG.
Honest pay for honest work. That’s what this country needs – not govt. controlled wages or virtual wage slavery (which seems to be the two opposites people are fighting for.)
I think it’s sad women either have to, for economic reasons, or feel ‘obliged’ to work. My wife’s breast milk dried up within weeks because of stress (and the unwarranted ‘advice’ and critical opinions from the lactation specialists earned them the nickname ‘Lactation Fascists.’ We wanted support and help and they just gave us blithe condemnation.) I think breastfeeding would have been viable if she hadn’t gone back to work so quickly, and been under such stress about her career AND trying to do what’s best for baby.
We’re already saving up and making lifestyle changes so when baby number two comes along, she can stay at home as a dedicated mother. There’s no shame in that, if it’s her choice. Society puts so much pressure on women to have a career and be the equal of men, but it’s NEVER an equal game because men don’t produce and nurture the babies. Society should lay off the feminist pressure and let women make their own choices about their lives and bodies – and not shame them for wanting to stay at home if they so choose.
Roland Hulme´s last blog ..Why being a toddler must rock…
@Amy @Roland – Re: entry level job wages. What I meant to get across was that government needs to increase the entry level wage to something that is liveable, like Roland suggests. If that were to happen a secondary gain would be that more moms could afford to stay home on maternity leave. I don’t think that is the main reason to raise the minimum wage though. I guess I should have made that more clear.
As far as child care goes, when the government subsidizes child care, and right now in Canada they do for families who have a lesser income, more families can afford to go back to work, which is better for the economy right? What I would like to see is subsidy for middle wage earners as well because it is the middle class who struggle with trying to find and pay for quality child care. And if a family can’t afford quality care their children get substandard care, all so the parents can afford to work. I ended up staying home with our children because we weren’t eligible for subsidy and we wouldn’t have been able to make ends meet if I went to work and we paid for childcare on top of that. That’s why I started doing my own child care.
@Roland – I agree that women should have the choice to work or stay home. A true feminist knows it’s about women’s choice. Choosing to stay at home is just as feminist as choosing to work outside the home.
I also think the US adopting a universal health care system will remedy a lot of the issues Americans have to deal with as far as receiving health care and benefits in their jobs.
I still have to stick to my original position on the wage issue. (I also happen to be adamantly against the Public Option passing here…healthcare is not the government’s responsibility, nor does it stand a chance at being run well here – look at Medicare, Social Security, and the VA health systems, for examples of what I’m talking about).
Entry-level jobs are not meant to provide for families. It is not the government’s place to make minimum wage higher to accomodate people who try to raise families in a permanent entry-level job situation. I fully support welfare as a help to families who struggle temporarily, but inflating wages for jobs isn’t a healthy long term solution.
The fact is, there are some jobs that are not worth any more than the current minimum wage. Those jobs aren’t meant to support families! Overpaying for that work is just that, overpaying, and the extra wage would be undeserved and unearned.
Trust that I realize people are being forced into jobs that they’re overqualified for and taking major wage hits. And please don’t assume that I’m some kind of privileged snob – I can assure you, I’m nothing of the sort. I believe in working hard for a wage that is tantamount to the task being performed, and that’s the bottom line regarding why I think inflating minimum wage would be wrong.
I’m pro-breastfeeding and with pumping and commitment, I believe it’s completely possible to maintain a breastfeeding relationship and work, even an exclusive one. I fully support your points that the public needs to be better educated on this. Employers (hello, Totes/Isotoner!) need to be, as well, in addition to being MUCH more accommodating to breastfeeding moms. Rather than inflating wages, the money would be better spent to create more bfing-friendly workplaces (especially in entry-level jobs, where I suspect conditions are worst) to help moms be able to pump while they’re away from their babies. And in the US, those moms (who are most likely to qualify for WIC supprt, etc-, should be supplied with a good quality pump to make that possible, instead of money for formula.)
Amy (@HappyMomAmy)´s last blog ..You Need the Bubbles!
@Amy – I see your point of view regarding minimum wage. I really do. Hamburger flipping folk shouldn’t get paid more than minimum wage. I agree. And people shouldn’t expect to raise a family on minimum wage, but many people have no choice in the matter for a smattering of different reasons. As far as health care goes we can agree to disagree. I’m very happy that I live in Canada where this really isn’t an issue. And as far as the issues we DO have with health care, well that’s just another post.
I agree that many problems, especially the ones faced by American moms, could be dealt with by increasing breastfeeding support and accommodations in the workplace as well as more focused breastfeeding support by WIC. Maybe the US can work on this one first while we work on some different solutions. Obviously what I wrote is a wish list and there are no expectations that all of these will get done – especially not all at once. I appreciate your thoughtful comments though Amy. Thanks!
Yes, economics does have effect on womens’ choices to breastfeed or not. But, I have to be honest here – in the UK, the choice has much more to do with peer pressure and family expectation than money. It is certainly a social issue, but not something that would be solved by increased wages or better support for breastfeeding women at work. Here it is a class thing, as in “middle class” people breastfeed and “working class” people don’t (usually). That sounds really crude, and of course there are countless exceptions. I don’t like talking about class and I don’t like putting people in boxes. But it is undoubtedly true that there are communities within which breastfeeding is normal and there are communities within which formula feeding is normal. It is not so much to do with how much people earn, as with who they live next door to.
Cave Mother´s last blog ..Baby, How You Make My Heart Melt
I think the root of the problem lies in support too. Especially when it comes to breastfeeding past the first few days. Where I live, we have no problem getting women to initiate breastfeeding, the problem is continuing. Studies have found that lack of support is a huge reason women give for quitting. Be it from maternity nurses, family, friends, etc. And yes, if you are from a lower socioeconomic class you are more likely to formula feed than breastfeed. It’s been proven. Of course, like you say, there are exceptions to everything and it is not a hard and fast rule, but GENERALLY SPEAKING, working class moms are under more pressure to ff, and for understandable reasons, as I listed above. Do you think that less education would have something to do with it too? Which as I see it is an economic variable to creating a formula feeding mentality.
Melodie´s last blog ..Breastfeeding, Formula Feeding and Social Oppression
Interesting Post……we in Canada are very lucky to have the right to breastfeed but I know this is not true in all states of the US.
I agree with most of your ideas around policy and breastfeeding but I think if we spent less money towards daycares and more towards families and allowing for the option for mom to stay at home (or work from home) your breastfeeding rates and longterm rates would go up. Most moms I have run across wean before they have to go back to work at one year and the WHO and the Canadian Ped. Society recommends nursing at least to the age of 2 and beyond.
As mentioned previously, the single most reason cited to be the determining factor as to whether a mom nurses long term is support but specifically her partner’s support. So more education is needed to the long term effects of nursing not to the health authority mind you (because they already know that!) but at the grassroots level thus the parents. Finally, I think another problem why we see a lack in long term breastfeeding is because our society continues to see breastfeeding as a way to feed baby but not as a way to parent baby. Breastfeeding is an important tool in parenting that promotes bonds and connections within families and we all know that healthy families have a vast impact on positive social and economic outcomes in society.
I experienced the complete opposite. i chose not to breast feed due to living on social assistance and my smoking and found that nurses and doctors treated me worse for not breastfeeding. i remember one phone call in the middle of the night getting transferred to a nurse who promptly told me if youre not breastfeeding i cant help you. many women all over the world choose not to breastfeed for health and social reasons. quite frankly im sick of this agenda being pushed onto mothers. and when im in the grocery store aisle, i dont want to come face to face with a boob. i dont feed my kids in a washroom either but i also dont feed them at the grocery store. millions of babies feed on formula and are no worse because of it. it’s a personal choice and all choices need to be respected.
all in your mind. No problem from outside.
Hey Jade,
I am sorry you got treated the way you did. I really feel that all mother’s need to be respected no matter what their choices are. I have worked with a few mother’s who have chosen to formula feed and because of the respectful relationship we had they were more open to getting information about breastfeeding and than they often find out that they ‘could of’ breastfed if they had the right information. Often these mothers will go on to breastfeeding their second children. I have also worked with mothers who smoked and nursed their children. As long as you are not smoking around your children, nursing even if you are a smoker can still introduce many benefits that you would otherwise not get with formula feeding.
I am glad you respect all mother’s right to feed no matter the medium even if they choose to breastfeed in the grocery store. I have seen many mother’s breastfeed in the grocery store and many mother’s give their children bottles in the grocery store. And lord knows I have been so hungry while shopping that I have eaten in the grocery store!
I have a serious case of envy of your one year maternity leave. I took all 12 weeks of mine and was so sorry to go back. And “Breastfeeding moms in North America have a legal right to breastfeed anytime, anywhere.” isn’t strictly true. Canada, it may be true for – but not all states in the US have laws protecting breastfeeding mothers, in some you can be tossed out of businesses or even arrested for indecent exposure! Not that it’s common as far as I know, but you can.
@Laura – I believe that there are only a very small handful of States left that don’t have a law protecting breastfeeding, like maybe 2 or 3. This past year saw a number of States adopt legislation to protect breastfeeding in public. Here is a link. http://www.ncsl.org/Default.aspx?TabId=14389
Yep, that’s the page I was remembering. In one sense it’s true, only 3 states have no laws that either protect your right to nurse wherever you’re otherwise authorized to be OR exempt you from indecency/obscenity laws. But some have only one or the other.
In Alabama, for example, you can breastfeed anywhere – but I don’t know what would happen if you accidentally flashed your nipple, because they don’t explicitly exempt it from indecency laws.
States that have neither law are: Idaho, Nebraska, West Virginia (with NO laws related to breastfeeding listed, nice! Though the other two only address jury duty).
Michigan says public nudity laws don’t apply to a woman breastfeeding a child, but give her no other protection, so she COULD be tossed from the business. (I hope the law is worded better than the summary, or someone will probably test it by stripping naked while feeding their kid some day….)
Nevada says it is not a violation of indecent exposure laws, but like Michigan gives no “anywhere she is otherwise authorized to be” protection (though the summary at the top says it does, the details don’t, so I’m confused here).
South Dakota exempts from indecency laws but doesn’t protect right to be where you want / not be harrassed.
Tennessee limits the age of the infant to under 12 months. Which is the American Pediatric recommendation but the WHO says 2 years. Heh.
Utah: “states that city and county governing bodies may not inhibit a woman’s right to breastfeed in public.” (and exempts her from indecency/exposure laws). Again, doesn’t seem to bar businesses from discriminating.
Virginia “guarantees a woman the right to breastfeed her child on any property owned, leased or controlled by the state.” Other property, nah. (But they do exempt from indecent exposure.)
Wisconsin exempts from indecent/obscene exposure, but that’s it.
Among other things, what this meant when we took my infant son to visit relatives, requiring flights across three time zones, layovers in various states, arrivals in various states, and in one case the actual destination being in another state, was for me to look up the rules for Oregon, Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Ohio – just to know if I’d have any ground to stand on if someone challenged me. (And I do realize, whatever the law says, they sometimes will! Not often, but sometimes. So far I haven’t had that happen, but I worry.)
@Laura -Thank you so much for breaking down the US laws here! That’s awesome! And so awful that you need to worry about each State law everytime you fly. Yikes! You guys need one nice big inclusive federal law!
I definitely agree with what you have to say here. Thanks for being social worky and academic–I love it!!
I agree that breastfeeding moms are often discirminated against, but are not oppressed. Oppression is bigger and more difficult to fight than what we experience.
I personally find a ton of difficulty managing to get the time/space/breaks I need to pump while I’m at work. Most moms who go back to work after their baby is one year of age and want to continue breastfeeding don’t have to pump, but I work 12 hour days, plus commute 2 hours, and sometimes have to do overtime on top of that. I have to pump. I have pumped in hospital bathrooms, the back of the ambulance, my car, the bathroom at the ambulance station, etc, but I have no clean, comfortable, private, consistent place to pump. We also have no regularly scheduled breaks so I am never, never guaranteed 15 minutes to half an hour of uninterrupted pumping time. I have gone as long as 17 hours without pumping because my shift was so busy, and I was almost ready to squirt random passersby at the end of it all.
I work with almost all men in a very masculine profession, so I don’t actually tell anyone that I am breastfeeding or pumping. I know I could cause a fuss and get my legal right to a clean, private place to pump and guaranteed breaks but it would cut across my work subculture and alienate me, so I’m not interested in going there.
Anyways, I got off on a tangent there, just wanted to add my $0.02 to the ‘cultural discrimination’ theme of your post. Thanks for posting such a well sourced and very thoughtful post!
Melissa´s last blog ..Quote of the day (stolen from tamie)
[...] Breastfeeding mothers on planes are being asked to cover up. 43 States currently have laws protecting breastfeeding rights to some extent, and only three States have no laws pertaining to breastfeeding at all (Idaho, Nebraska and West Virginia). However, all State laws are somewhat different. As a reader of mine recently told me here [...]