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America has tried to shame and abuse mothers to breast feed against the interests of the child and mother for years. Now, people are getting wiser and hopefully we can abolish the current breast feeding proponent establishment and start over. I bet we'd have more breast fed kids and better programs.
Breast feeding can be more than "physically demanding" but contrary to the health and well being on infants and mothers at times. The formula industry actually offers a more honest review of the process than most breast feeding consultants whose sole goal is to promote breast feeding even if it is harmful to that particular child or mother. That is sad, but factual.
All new mothers need to be made aware when they make choices. Usually breast feeding is the best option, at times it is not. People should encourage breast feeding but warn all new mothers to not assume they will receive 100% truthful data from a breast feeding professionals.
This study, 90% perecnt of mothers breast fed for 6 months could save just 900 babies annually is not even statistically significant.
I would love for it "not [to be] that hard for most women," but guess what -- it is.
It is true that so many moms in America have tried to breastfeed and haven't succeeded, but the reason for this is because they did not have accurate information and support, either from their community or their health care providers. THEY haven't failed! Our society has failed THEM - we need to realize that so that they can feel good about supporting women breastfeeding instead of demonized for not doing it themselves. Women who have issues such as inverted nipples and low milk supplies and difficult work schedules DO have options available to help them and DO often succeed in breastfeeding! There are a few - a very few - medical reasons that a woman cannot breastfeed.
I am a little disappointed that this article does not mention the great savings that could be gained relating to PRE-menopausal breast cancer. There are peer-reviewed studies out there that show that a woman's risk of this form of the disease is greatly reduced in relation to the total length of time that she has breastfed her children. We have talk show after talk show on the subject of breast cancer, but I have never once seen this mentioned.
As to 900 children not being a large enough number, may I mention that MANY products are recalled when just a few children are harmed or killed? Cans of formula themselves have been recalled numerous times in the last decade for things such as containing ground glass, dangerous amounts of iron, botulism, etc... It is nice to know that the milk in your breasts is not tainted.
It may help us as a country to admit that our children, and indeed families as a whole, are a targeted marketing group. As long as someone is making vast amounts of money on us NOT feeding our babies for free, we will be constantly inundated with reasons why we can't, shouldn't, or don't need to feed our babies.
And what is six months, really? Most of us have devoted more than that to a terrible romantic relationship or a terrible job! That being said, the American Academy of Pediatrics actually recommends breastfeeding for at least a year, and as long thereafter as is mutually desired. And children are, by definition, not convenient! Even if you choose to bottle-feed, or end up bottle-feeding, it is still NOT a convenient relationship. Why are we looking for convenience?
Can we really say that we are MAKING a choice when we have very few good role models for breastfeeding, very little knowledge about it, a society that views breasts as sexual (only) and companies that make huge amounts of money from ensuring that people do not breastfeed? Perhaps we only THINK we are making our own choices.
In many years of working with all kinds of moms, I find that moms NEVER - and I mean NEVER - feel bad for choosing to breastfeed. They do often feel bad for choosing or being forced by circumstances NOT to. And those bad feeling can lead to so much anger and defensiveness, sadness and guilt. We should be very compassionate to those women!
Lastly, a joke: What do toy trains and breasts have in common? They are really for children, but men think they are for them...
Yes, breastfeeding it best, yes, there are many benefits to mother and child, and I'm sure there are many things it can help minimize in children. BUT...my 2nd child, the one I breastfed for 14 months, has Juvenile Diabetes and is hypothyroid (2 auto-immune diseases that are closely linked), so to say it will/may prevent Juvenile or Type1 diabetes is complete idiocy. I want to see the data that they have that supports that statement, and I can show you hundreds of mothers that can refute that data. How dare CBS promote such foolishness.
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I can't for the life of me imagine how breast feeding could possibly be physically demanding.
There are tons more that I could cite, however, HOPEFULLY, you have gotten off your sexist attitude and figure a little out on your own before spouting nonsense again.
Second, having breastfed my oldest daughter for two months and then switching to bottle, and then breastfeeding my younger two children until slightly over a year, I can tell you the health effects are HUGE. About 3 months after switching my oldest to bottle, she had ear infections after ear infections, after colds after colds. We were at the pediatricians office constantly. Even today at age 23, her health is fair at best. On the other hand, my two youngest, aside from well-child check-ups, never had to go to the doctor. At now 17 and 9, they are rarely if ever sick. I won't say breastfeeding was always easy or convienient, however, if given the chance to go back and do things differently, I would definitely have continued to breastfeed my oldest child.
What you have experienced with your own children, is what we have known for a long time...The transfer of anti-bodies from the mother to the child, results in an immune system, that has a huge number of available anti-bodies from the mother, to fight infections, colds, flu, etc.
Why should a medical person shame, humiliate or threaten someone who can't breast feed successfully?
This story is far from "new". In fact, it is very very old news that breast feeding usually (key word: usually) is better for babies.
I'd suggest this article actually shows a real lack of urgency to put more effort into breast feeding. Statistically, saving 900 babies if 90 percent of mothers breast fed for six months is a paltry number. I would have thought it was higher. It is not even medically realistic for 90 percent of mothers to breast feed for 6 months. We should spend our money and effort to help more children in ways that are realistic. based on this study, less effort should go towards breast feeding.
The breast feeding advocates don't give accurate information; they often mislead, and they totally ignore the medical and societal reality that many mothers and infants are better off with bottle feeding. No mother who makes the choice to bottle feed should be mistreated based on that call, especially by a medical person who likely didn't offer them the full spectrum of data when they made an original choice to breast feed.
Breast feeding advocates have poisoned the week with years of false information and mistreatment of those women who could not follow their demands.
All new mothers should get pros and cons when they decide whether to breast feed or not, and should not be tormented by anyone if they chose to bottle feed. All new mothers need to be given accurate data about breast feeding as well as a warning about breast feeding advocates.
We're concerned about future babies for heavens sake. You made you decision based on what you knew at the time, this is new information for current pregnant women.
Boy, to listen to people here, you'd think that women never had a child before formula came along! And there are reasons not to breastfeed, but there are also plenty of people who could with a bit more encouragement, if they knew the benefits, or if their workplaces were required to be a bit more helpful.
Some women cannot - and this report is not saying that is a problem. The problem is women who can, but who, for a variety of reasons, are not being encouraged or supported sufficiently to do so.
This study can't be trusted.
There are many solid reasons to bottle feed, and many times it is in the interest of the infant to bottle feed. Period. Breast feeding advocates will never tell you that, and may even make up reasons to deny it. In many hospitals, the personnel assigned to help encourage you to breast feed care far less about you and your child than whether they succeed in getting that person to breast feed, even if there are negative consequences as a result.
Dr Ruth Lawrence is to be trusted on this as much as a hack used car salesman.
In look at this article in more detail, is it said it made the front page. That if 90% perecnt of mothers breast fed for 6 months could save just 900 babies annually is not even statistically significant. That is totally unrealistic (90% for 6 months) and you'd have a better chance to find a unicorn in your basement. We can save more than 900 babies annually by offering data that is attainable.