by Chris Bodenner
Remaining thoughts from readers on the baby formula debate:
God knows I wasn't going to comment, but I can't help myself. Bloomberg is an ass. Sorry. I breastfed all three of my children – my 3rd one, due to a dairy allergy, until she was 13 months old. This won't be a popular reaction, but I hated it. I did it because there was so much pressure on moms to breastfeed. With my 2nd child, I didn't produce enough milk. I sat and wept in the pediatrician's office when they weighed my baby and she had lost weight. I felt like a total failure. I went to a private lactation consultant. She told me to drink some special tea, get in bed with my daughter for 24 hours and nurse around the clock. She still wasn't gaining enough weight. Our pediatrician told me to supplement with formula. Reluctantly, I did, but I felt so inadequate. With my 3rd, she refused a bottle so I nursed her exclusively until she was 13 months and we could transition her to rice milk due to her allergy.
Some women love breastfeeding and it's obviously healthier, but we need to stop with all the guilt. And those terrible swag bags give free samples and coupons that families need. Formula is really expensive. It's one of the top grocery items shoplifted. And Bloomberg, who is pro-choice, should be an advocate of women choosing how we use our bodies.
Another tempers such reactions:
Many of your readers have been mislead as to the true nature of the "Latch on NYC" breastfeeding choice initiative. The greatest myth is that the initiative is mandatory; it is entirely voluntary on the part of all hospitals.
Furthermore, there is absolutely no requirement that hospitals keep commercial baby formula under lock and key. The initative does limit access to formula by hospital staff, in the same way many hospital medications and supplements may not be accessed unless specifically approved my physicians and medical supervisors. A major reason for this limitation is due to the high incidences of breastfed infants being given supplemental formula feedings by hospital staff – against current medical policies and often without the approval of the parent(s). The initiative specifically states that formula should be made available to those who make an informed decision not to breastfeed.
There is no need to rehash the economic and health benefits of breastfeeding, as they are proven beyond a doubt. Yes, there are women who can not or do not wish to breastfeed, and the Latch On initiative respects the rights of these women. It's the hospital that has no business – particularly without the express permission of the mother and her medical care givers – to promote the use of commercial products for its own convenience and possible financial advantage.
On the other hand, a reader details how expensive, and painful, breastfeeding can be for some mothers:
Before you attempt to do it, breastfeeding sounds easy: Step 1: Attach infant to breast; Step 2: Feed. At least that is what I thought before I had my baby. In reality there is a lot more that goes into it. You have to get the baby to latch on properly or else you will end up in excruciating pain (i.e. sore, bloody nipples). Even if you get a good latch from the start, you will still experience a lot of soreness, and so for a period of a few weeks even wearing a shirt can be uncomfortable. Also, just working on getting the latch and doing it right takes a lot of practice and can take a lot of time each time you go to feed your baby.
Then feeding your baby itself takes a lot of time. How much? For a newborn (a baby up to 3 months), you are generally feeding on demand which means every 3 hours. Doesn't sound like that much, till you think that means 8 times a day (24 hour period) and takes 45 – 60 minutes each time. That is up to 8 hours of breast feeding a day. It gets faster and more efficient (I am told) as you go along, but if you have to go back to work after 6 weeks, and you are exclusively breast feeding, that is a lot of time – with baby, with your pump, and worrying about your supply (the less time you are feeding baby, the more likely you get a drop in milk supply as a pump is not as efficient as a baby).
My plan – as an older, yuppie, blue state city dweller, white collar professional, first time mom – was to breast feed exclusively for a year in accordance with the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation. When reality got in the way, I managed to breast feed exclusively for a grand total of nine days – in which time my son gained half an ounce in total (when he should have been gaining an ounce a day and gotten back to and exceeded his birth weight), and I had bloody nipples, shooting pains through my chest, and a continual burning sensation on my nipples. Over the course of the next three months, I consulted with three different lactation consultants ($100 – $250/visit); started mainlining herbs and tinctures meant to increase milk production (~ $15 – $25/container); rented a hospital grade (more powerful) breast pump ($75/month + special tubes/attachments/bottles $60, and had to be replaced monthly) in addition to my standard commercial pump I had bought prior to baby's arrival because i knew I would have to pump when I went back to work (~$250), bottles/storage for the pumped milk (~$50 – $75).
The burning sensation never really dissipated. My son spit up my blood on several occasions after nursing. Neither of us ever enjoyed it. It was a tense, stressful, painful and uncomfortable. And every day, I felt like a failure, someone who couldn't even perform this most basic task of mothering: properly nourishing her child. We soldiered on like this for 3.5 months – supplementing with formula (which at first I really resisted because of this concept that formula is poison), because despite my efforts, I still couldn't produce enough milk to keep up with him.
Before I went back to work, my husband and I decided that I would stop. The time involved for diminishing returns (5 oz of milk daily for a child consuming nearly 30 oz daily) coupled with the extreme emotional toll on me made it the right choice, especially when having to head back to work. Even with all the resources, money, time, help and support I had, it just didn't work out for us. I cannot imagine what it would be like if you were strapped for cash, had minimal maternity leave, and didn't have family support.
Another offers a glimpse of those mothers who lack support:
I was speaking to my wife about this issue and wanted to share her input. She is a dietitian in NYC who's had some experience working in lower-income communities:
"I really think people are over-reacting to this. The initiative doesn't block anyone from using formula – it just more appropriately regulates distributing it in the hospital. The people it will affect (poor, uneducated women) are the women who historically have had cultural practices that make them less likely to be successful breastfeeding and who may not have had enough (or any) education about breastfeeding to understand how to do it. When I worked with WIC, I learned that a lot of Latin cultures (in particular) have a mindset about breastfeeding that trails affluent/white populations by about 20 years, that breastfeeding is hard work and if you are successful and have enough money, you should use formula because it is easier/better/a sign to the community that you can afford it. That opinion used to be commonplace in the 1950s-70s and it was a huge barrier.
The people who are so outraged about Bloomberg's initiative are the people who know that breastfeeding is better, understand that it is hard work, and have received education or have done their own research. But they are also the ones who can afford formula if they want to use it and have access to good doctors and lactation consultants and largely won't have problems feeding their babies. But the point is that ALL women who deliver in a hospital shouldn't just be given formula in their gift bag – it is a leftover from that mindset of the 1950s that formula feeding is what you should be doing. It sends a message to new moms who are having trouble breastfeeding in the beginning that they should just formula feed instead. And once a baby gets used to the bottle, it makes it MUCH harder to get it to latch back on to the breast AND it keeps the mom from making enough milk (because you need the constant stimulation of the baby feeding to build up the supply.)
So now instead of just handing formula to every mom leaving the hospital, nurses have to sign it out like medication and document why they are giving it out. That doesn't hurt anyone. And it saves money for the hospital. So it should reduce healthcare costs a little. Wow, what a concept."
The Dish 