It is the LEADING risk factor for newborn hospital readmission. It is responsible for the hospitalization of TENS OF THOUSANDS of newborn babies each year, not to mention an untold number of brain injuries and deaths from dehydration, hyperbilirubinemia and hypoglycemia.
And yet, the American Academy of Pediatrics continues to promote it.
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The current situation is an abomination. The harms — the tens of thousands of neonatal hospitalizations, the brain injuries, the deaths — are almost entirely caused by the mindless insistence on exclusivity. [/pullquote]
Yesterday the AAP posted this on its Twitter feed:
Breastfeeding matters! It’s important for the health of children – and mothers.
It’s not true. In the US, breastfeeding DOESN’T matter. With the exception of premature babies, there is no evidence that breastfeeding reduces mortality rates, severe morbidity rates, disease incidence rates or healthcare spending. This despite the fact that breastfeeding rates have nearly quadrupled in the past 40 years. If we haven’t seen the purported benefits yet, they don’t exist regardless of how many mathematical models predicted them.
The accompanying video is filled with bald faced lies.
Breastfeeding is the best start for your baby? Then why is it the leading risk factor for newborn hospital readmission?
Breastmilk contains all the nutrients your baby needs? Then why do breastfed babies need vitamin and iron supplements?
Breastfeeding promotes a “special bond” to your baby? In addition to the fact the claim is a lie that has been thoroughly debunked, it is an unspeakably cruel insult to adoptive parents, fathers and non-birthing partners in lesbian marriages.
Breastfeeding is great when it works. I know; I breastfed four babies. But it is hardly necessary for infant health and wellbeing. Two generations of Americans — the so-called “Greatest Generation” and their children — were raised nearly entirely on formula and mortality rates and morbidity rates continued to drop at a brisk pace. There is no evidence that those generations suffered from bonding difficulties with their parents. They grew up to be taller, healthier, and with higher IQs that the generations before.
The AAP can’t point to any benefits of breastfeeding that have come to pass, while I and others can point to literally tens of thousands of babies harmed each year by breastfeeding promotion. That raises the question: is the AAP morally culpable for the harm they cause by promoting breastfeeding?
In my view, the AAP does bear moral responsibility for the tens of thousands of hospitalizations each year, the permanent brain injuries and deaths, not to mention the soul searing guilt carried by many of the nearly 15% of women who can’t exclusively breastfeed, particularly in the early days after birth.
The AAP bears moral responsibility for these egregious harms because, as exemplified by their Tweet, they continue to promote falsehoods.
I’m not suggesting that the AAP wanted babies to be harmed by aggressive breastfeeding promotion; they never expected it. But they bear morally responsibility for the harms because they have ignored them. The AAP seems to have decided that those hospitalized and injured babies (and their mothers) are acceptable collateral damage.
Why? Because they’ve been co-opted by the breastfeeding industry encompassing, the tens of thousands of lactation consultants, lactation leaders and companies that profit by promoting breastfeeding.
The AAP bears moral responsibility for the harms because they’ve allowed and supported the industry — in the form of BabyFriendly USA — to operate freely in hospitals, replacing scientific evidence with lactivist ideology.
The AAP bears moral responsibility for the harms because they’ve allowed BFUSA to force doctors and nurses to abide by an ideology that many consider untrue at best and harmful at worst.
The AAP bears moral responsibility for the harms because they’ve allowed themselves to be blinded by white hat bias. They are still so angry at the formula industry for its behavior in Africa in the 1970’s that they demonize formula itself.
But most of all the AAP bears moral responsibility for the harms because they have made no effort to stop them. It wouldn’t be difficult. All they would have to do is point out that while breastmilk is good, there is precious little evidence that the purported benefits require exclusive breastfeeding.
The current situation is an abomination. The harms — the tens of thousands of hospitalizations, the brain injuries, the deaths — are almost entirely caused by the mindless insistence on exclusivity.
It’s the equivalent of telling parents that the benefit of a healthy diet for a child is entirely negated by an occasional piece of candy. It’s the equivalent of claiming that the occasional piece of candy would destroy their children’s gut microbiome and result in epigenetic changes. It’s the equivalent of insisting that parents who let their children eat candy occasionally don’t bond to them or love them as much as those who ban candy entirely. It would be ugly, unscientific and cruel to children and parents.
But that’s what the AAP is doing when it promotes breastfeeding exclusivity at the expense of the physical health of babies and the mental health of mothers. And so they bear moral responsibility for the tremendous harm caused by their complicity in a breastfeeding promotion campaign that has produced very few measurable benefits and a large amount of harm.
