A new mother has just delivered a healthy, crying cherub of a baby. It's time to feed the infant. What could be more natural or healthy than breastfeeding?
The New Jersey Department of Health has just issued what may become new rules for hospitals to encourage and teach their new moms to breastfeed their infants and wean the mothers off using baby formula.
The goal is "to increase exclusive breast-feeding rates, improve health outcomes of mothers and infants, reduce childhood obesity rates and contain health care costs," the Department of Health told the Star-Ledger.
That would make New Jersey one of four states with written guidelines for hospitals on breastfeeding.
By doing so, the Department of Health may have walked into a field of landmines. The topic of whether to breastfeeding - or not - has been a highly charged one among various mothering groups.
Some militant moms go to one extreme, that not only is a bottle mom risking her child's health by not breastfeeding, but that she is selfish and lazy for not doing so.
Mothers who have been stung by the barbs of the breastfeeders strike back by calling them Nursing Nazis (and worse.)
And then there are a few mothers who believe in live and let live, whether it's breast or bottle. The battle to make mothers who don't conform feel as if they are bad mothers may be a strong incentive for them to turn their backs on formula and go back to Mother Nature.
Some who believe that breastfeeding is a mother's choice don't think that the government should be forcing hospitals to put pressure on new moms to breastfeed.
TELL US: Should breastfeeding be a private decision? Should mothers be pressured, whether by the hospital or by breastfeeding moms, to give up the bottle? Should the government be involved in this? Do you think that mothers who use formula for their children are selfish, while breastfeeding moms are saintly?
What do you think?
This also goes to the larger question: exactly how much supervision for our own good from nanny government do we need? if the NJDH is just making suggestions and wants to maybe provide pamphlets or a web-site re: the subject then I guess it can. But this article reads like they are issuing rules or dictating specific guidelines to hospitals. At what point are a free people responsible for their own lives? WHen did we lose the capacity to make our own decisions? It is the symptom of the larger over-regulation of the American life with no recourse at the polls. You can vote out a congressperson, but how do you vote out an Assistant Secretary In Charge Of Mammary Affairs And Chesticular Nutrition For The State Of New Jersey who is passing down new regulattions at his/her whim? Enough. Please. Big Government creates a small, infantilized citizenry. On another note, as a father, I enjoyed helping out with the bottle-feeding...I didn't even mind the three am shift (well, not always). Finally, I don't think breast vs. bottle is at the root of childhood obesity, I think it's as simple as wolfing down empty calories while spending hours in the basement at the playstation on a beautiful day when 30+ years ago, the bottle-fed kids, most of whom were thin, were outside organizing games of running bases or kickball. IMHO.
"If the rules are adopted, New Jersey would be one of only four states — including New York, California and Massachusetts — that require hospitals to have written policies that encourage breast-feeding. The changes would direct hospitals to support breast-feeding before and after birth, and require hospitals to have written policies for identifying and supporting the needs of a breast-feeding mother and child. Hospitals would also be required to have lactation-support rooms for consultation, breast-feeding and pumping. Under the proposed regulations, new moms will be asked how they want to feed their babies. If a mother is having trouble breast-feeding, hospital staff will work with her to overcome those difficulties and they can offer formula as an alternative, said Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health." cont....
Someone above said: "There is a WEALTH of information out there and no woman should need anyone to tell her about it. "" When you've just given birth, and for many that includes being horribly sleep deprived/exhausted/recovering from surgery etc etc.....I really don't think a PC or library is going to help when you encounter difficulties or have questions in general. And good luck with the OB, they're usually long gone by then.
You may want to differentiate between "bottles" and "formula" as many women express their milk and feed via the bottle.
Perhaps that is the real direction. Certainly, breast feeding has been heavily promoted for some time now with much education, support, and Information easily available to all of us. Isn't it always about money in the end?
Let that not happen!
Honestly the formula promotion is everywhere. Commercials, baby/parent magazines, my OB's office, the very hospital room after giving birth where companies like Similac have their logos emblazoned on those nifty "free" diaper bags. Think of programs on TV, when you see a woman with a baby, and that baby is being fed, how often is that baby breastfed? I had this discussion with another mother recently and I could not think of one sitcom where a baby was breastfed. It's a huge part of our culture today, we're just so used to it that we're no longer aware.
I'm fine with the choice to breast feed. I just wish the mammary militants were as tolerant of other women's decisions if it's not in accord with their own.
- artificial milk-branded trinkets given by hospitals (like the Nestle note pads that doctors' offices write your baby's weight down on at checkups) - "Breastfeeding help lines" paid for by artificial milk manufacturers and promoted by doctors - cans of artificial milk sent home with parents who birth in hospitals, whether they express a wish to use it or not - cans of artificial milk sent directly to the homes of expectant parents using addresses they unwittingly provided to maternity clothing stores And you are entirely correct, having a baby is and should be a happy event. I work with new mothers and I can't tell you the number of times I've had a woman break down and cry in front of me. NOT because she felt breastfeeding was pushed on her, but because she WANTED to breastfeed and everyone she went to before me tried to stop her from doing it. The point is, we need to start from the true baseline and deviate from it as necessary/desired, not the other way around.