This was not the original topic for this fortnight. Instead,
this is yet another reaction piece to recent events in the news. Specifically,
a widely circulated post on Is the Medical Community Failing Breastfeeding Moms. This post has received
considerable attention, both positive and negative, and speaks to larger issues
in society and mammary physiology. First off, you can have lactation failure,
just as you can have kidney failure, infertility and numerous other
physiological disorders. And lactation failure is probably not all that rare –
the estimates floating about in the blogs are 1-2%; in the 1980s the estimates
were a bit higher at 2-5%. In the study I work with, mothers in the Philippines
in the 1980s had a failure rate of about 3%.
What strikes me most about the new focus on medical
professionals failing breastfeeding mothers, is the assumption that by
presenting the challenges and potential problems of breastfeeding, we are
somehow setting mothers up for failure.
I would argue in the fact the opposite – we have already set mothers up for
failure by pretending that the act of doing is natural and natural means anyone
can do it if they try hard enough.
Natural becomes a code for easy, when the reality is neither.
Breastfeeding is work, it can be stressful, it can be difficult, it can be
impossible. It can also be event-less, not difficult (but never easy), and
successful. Every tool should be in
place to help mothers who want to nurse their babies and every tool should be
in place to help mothers who do not want to nurse.
The set up for failure actually starts outside the medical
community in the actual community. Take a moment and ask yourself when was the
last time you saw a baby nurse? If the populations in my classroom are any
index of the general public (probably not) then about 50% of people have ever
seen a baby nurse. Think about a trip to the mall, zoo, or museum. Nursing
moms? I usually remember them because of the rarity – the other 100s of visits
to these places where I do not see a nursing women blend together. Breastfeeding is largely invisible – think about
the recent stink over the “breastfeeding doll” compared to the dolls
prepackaged with bottles?