and while I'm being irritated
Jun. 26th, 2006 04:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eiriasHere's something I don't get. There appears to be a vocal contingent of people who condemn mothers who bottle-feed their little ones. Recently, I heard rumors of a government campaign promoting breastfeeding and warning of the dangers of not doing it. (It's a stupid link, so if readers have a better one, please pass it on.) What gives?
Breastfeeding is good for a kid -- I buy that, I really do! I haven't done the research myself, but I think the reported findings of its benefits for health, nutrition, and parent-child bonding are totally plausible. But it's a long long way from this fact to using scare or shame tactics on mothers who don't do it -- because in my understanding, breastfeeding is not actually *possible* for everyone. Maybe you don't make enough milk! Maybe you are taking necessary medications that might find their way into your milk supply! Maybe you had a radical mastectomy! Maybe breastfeeding is so painful that doing it is debilitating! Maybe you're a single mom of twins and there just isn't time in the day to pay the bills and pump enough milk for everyone!
The whole thing seems like just another case of "let's prey on mothers' neurotic tendencies by shining a bright light on everything they do." I mean, not that there aren't bad parents out there; but I have an hypothesis that the only parents who pay attention to parenting campaigns like this are the ones you don't need to reach, who will only become more neurotic and annoying. And I really don't think that's necessary.
Breastfeeding is good for a kid -- I buy that, I really do! I haven't done the research myself, but I think the reported findings of its benefits for health, nutrition, and parent-child bonding are totally plausible. But it's a long long way from this fact to using scare or shame tactics on mothers who don't do it -- because in my understanding, breastfeeding is not actually *possible* for everyone. Maybe you don't make enough milk! Maybe you are taking necessary medications that might find their way into your milk supply! Maybe you had a radical mastectomy! Maybe breastfeeding is so painful that doing it is debilitating! Maybe you're a single mom of twins and there just isn't time in the day to pay the bills and pump enough milk for everyone!
The whole thing seems like just another case of "let's prey on mothers' neurotic tendencies by shining a bright light on everything they do." I mean, not that there aren't bad parents out there; but I have an hypothesis that the only parents who pay attention to parenting campaigns like this are the ones you don't need to reach, who will only become more neurotic and annoying. And I really don't think that's necessary.