The Argument by Some Mothers That They Feel Pressured to Breast Feed

ByShaun Snapp

Table of Contents: Select a Link to be Taken to That Section

Executive Summary

  • A major argument used to promote formula is that mothers feel overly pressured — bordering on abuse — to breast feed.

Introduction

There are several books, including Bottled Up How the Way We Feed Babies Has Come to Define Motherhood and Why It Shouldn’t, Lactivism, and Guilt Free Bottle Feeding, that propose there is overwhelming pressure on mothers to breastfeed. This is essentially an argument for using formulas and proposes that the overall system should be more tolerant of different options, which include using formulas. We cover some representative quotes from these advocates.

Our References for This Article

If you want to see our references for this article and related Brightwork articles, visit this link.

Go to top

The Quotes

The following quote is one example of this.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Medical Association (AMA), and American Dietetic Association (ADA) all recommend exclusive breastfeeding for at least the first six months of life, followed by at least six months of partial breastfeeding. WHO takes it a step further commanding us to nurse for two full years. – Bottled Up How the Way We Feed Babies Has Come to Define Motherhood and Why It Shouldn’t

Notice the use of the term “command.” The author Suzanne Barston is turning the recommendation into a commandment. This is a constant feature of Barston, which is like nearly all of the mothers that argue against the imposition of breastfeeding, is simply special pleading. This is also found in Barston’s quotation below.

In the past decade, no conversation about breastfeeding can escape the legend of the 2003 US HHS on Women’s Health/Advertising Council breastfeeding campaign. The campaign most famously featured a thirty second public service announcement showing a massively pregnant, attractive African American woman in her thirties riding a mechanical bull. She falls off; the bar patrons watching are appropriately horrified. And the words flash on the screen, ominously, “You wouldn’t’ take risks before your baby was born. Why Start After? Breastfeed exclusively for 6 months.” By appealing to mother’s propensity for guilt and fear…So we’re starting with a group of women who are already nervous, probably overloaded with information, and the host of a ton of pesky hormones..The campaign’s creators were well aware of the impact these ads would have; one member of the AAP’s breastfeeding committee claimed the campaign signified “a change to promote breast feeding as a public health issue rather than simply as a personal parenting choice.” Even the slogan used in the campaign–“Babies are born to be breastfed,” rather than the well known adage “breast is best” — was significant. The DHHS intended the slogan to address its growing concern that breastfeeding should not be seen as the “ideal,” but rather that formula should be framed as risky.– Bottled Up How the Way We Feed Babies Has Come to Define Motherhood and Why It Shouldn’t

So the argument is that this hurts the mental health of mothers, who are already overwhelmed. However, the content of the information is correct. Apparently, to protect the mental health of mothers, campaigns to promote breast feeding need to be more nuanced. Her quote continues.

There was a ton of controversy surrounding these ads, which were pulled shortly after their launch (but not before they scared millions of potential, current and future moms I’ll bet.) – Bottled Up How the Way We Feed Babies Has Come to Define Motherhood and Why It Shouldn’t

This framing makes is sound like the DHHS is nefarious in its desire to scare mothers unnecessarily. What is the DHHS supposed to do? It faces constant erosion of breastfeeding through deceptive advertising by infant formula manufacturers.