Adele is right: the pressure on new mothers to breastfeeding is fu**ing ridiculous.
The singer was apparently responding to chef Jamie Oliver’s mansplainin’ of breastfeeding as “easy and convenient.” The press has covered both stories with dozens of articles, and breastfeeding advocates could learn a lot from reading those articles carefully. The key point, expressed in a variety of ways is this:
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Stop camouflaging bullying as support![/pullquote]
Lactivists, stop pretending that bullying is support!
Dictionary.com has a variety of definitions for support and the one that applies in this situation is:
To sustain (a person, the mind, spirits, courage, etc.) under trial or affliction.
Who is being sustained with breastfeeding support and what constitutes their trial or affliction?
Presumably women who breastfeed need support for two reasons:
1. Breastfeeding itself is difficult.
2. Women who breastfeed might meet resistance to it from society.
In other words, though lactivists are constantly proclaiming the ease and convenience of breastfeeding, it is neither. Indeed, such claims are downright laughable. If it were easy and convenient, breastfeeding mothers would not need support. If it were easy and convenient, we certainly would not need a force of paid professionals (lactation consultants) whose only purpose is to provide support.
How about the need for support in meeting resistance to breastfeeding from society? That’s pretty laughable, too. Every societal institution, from doctors, to hospitals, to public health authorities, to government entities is loudly proclaiming (and often exaggerating) the benefits of breastfeeding.
As I’ve written repeatedly, in industrialized countries, there is strong scientific support for only two minor benefits for term infants: a few less colds and a few less episodes of diarrheal illness across the entire population in the first year. Despite fanciful claims of lives and money that could be saved with breastfeeding, and despite the fact that breastfeeding rates have tripled in the past 50 years, advocates cannot point to a single term baby or a single healthcare dollar saved by breastfeeding.
So what exactly are breastfeeding support programs like the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) supporting?
Here are the ten steps of the initiative:
- Have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff.
- Train all health care staff in the skills necessary to implement this policy.
- Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.
- Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within one hour of birth.
- Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation, even if they are separated from their infants.
- Give infants no food or drink other than breast-milk, unless medically indicated.
- Practice rooming in – allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day.
- Encourage breastfeeding on demand.
- Give no pacifiers or artificial nipples to breastfeeding infants.
- Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or birth center.
Let’s leave aside for a moment the fact that the there is no scientific evidence that the BFHI improves breastfeeding rates, its ostensible goal, and look at whether these measures support women who wish to breastfeed. Some do, like showing mothers how to breastfeed and fostering the establishment of breastfeeding support groups. But most of the ten steps are not concerned at all with supporting women who want to breastfeed. There’s nothing supportive about banning pacifiers, banning supplementation for infants losing weight, or mandating rooming in, which makes it much harder for women to rest and heal from their deliveries.
Even more remarkable is the fact that the measures apply indiscriminately to all women, whether they wish to be supported in breastfeeding or not.
That’s not support; that’s bullying, defined as arrogant, overbearing attempts to intimidate and domineer.
When you understand that, Adele’s comments make perfect sense:
“It’s f**king ridiculous, and all those people who put pressure on us, you can go f**k yourselves, alright?,” she said. “Because it’s hard. Some of us can’t do it! I managed about nine weeks with my boobs (I mean I trip over them – I’ve got a very good push-up bra). Some of my mates got post-natal depression from the way those midwives were talking. Idiots.
“Breastfeed if you can but don’t worry, [formula milk] Aptamil’s just as good. I mean, I loved it, all I wanted to do was breastfeed and then I couldn’t and then I felt like, ‘if I was in the jungle now back in the day, my kid would be dead because my milk’s gone.’”
Adele, an accomplished, wealthy, assertive woman felt bullied by breastfeeding advocates. If she felt bullied, how much harder is it for women who may not be as self-confident?
That ought to tell lactivists something, but I suspect that they aren’t listening because they don’t want to hear it.
Stop camouflaging your bullying as support. Women don’t need it; they don’t want it, and most importantly, it hurts them.
Support those who want your support and leave everyone else alone.
