A day with nothing planned, isn't that a wonder! Yesterday I attended a lactation conference in Phoenix with some long-time friends and we had a great time. That boring drive is so much better with friends.
What's new with breastfeeding you ask? Nothing much new, you have a baby, milk perfect for that baby is magically produced, you feed the baby. Done, done and done! The benefits are consistently reaffirmed but there are those who continue to discount them. It's still the best way to feed a baby but it's a bit like tobacco. It look a long time before people would accept that smoking or dipping were bad for you, and there are still those who would argue it today. What else is common to the two issues? Strong lobbies and huge advertising budgets. Artificial Breast Milk (ABM) is a world-wide mega-industry, with companies spending over 45 million in TV, print and radio advertising in 2004. All that money to promote something that only a fraction of the population actually needs and the use of which has been shown to increase risk of Type 2 diabetes by 39%. The world is truly a crazy place. (And yes, I know that ABM is essential to some infants)
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Would love to learn more about the correlation between infant formula and Type 2 diabetes. Do you have a link to an article or study?
ReplyDeleteThere are actually many benefits, I chose to focus on diabetes because it's such a hot-button right now.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/tp/brfouttp.htm
http://www.diabetesvoice.org/files/attachments/article_489_en.pdf
http://diabetes.webmd.com/news/20061116/breastfeeding-may-lower-diabetes-risk
The evidence grows and grows.
Start linking formula up with necrotizing enterocolitis and you've got a death rate to tend with....
ReplyDeleteWhat surprises me is the growing trend of pumping and feeding from a bottle than from the breast. My sister-in-law did that. She said it was easier. There was an article recently somewhere, maybe Time, that was about how more and more women are opting to do that.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/fanrr13/fanrr13.pdf
ReplyDeleteAnd we know that formula almost immediately changes the flora of the gut in term kids, sets up allergic response, the list continues to grow.
Kelly, yes it's a strange phenomenon. My observations are: women are uncomfortable with their bodies, they don't trust the process (with a bottle, they can see how much baby is getting), there's not a lot of support for women to breastfeed, especially if they have to go back to work; breastfeeding is a commitment, we ignore the importance of that skin to skin time with baby and the work the jaw has to do at the breast, I could go on...
ReplyDeleteI've had people tell me it's easier and I just don't quite get that. I used to have to pump at work, there was nothing easy about that.
However, Olga has the cutest little breast pump you've ever seen! Name's Jack!