Christmas Wishes...

When I return from the festivities amongst my circle I will share my story of a very special gift I am giving this season, my milk...

Why is the Health of Babies Less Important?

After an unfriendly encounter with an artificial breastmilk (also known as formula) pusher in a department store it occured to me that the health of babies simply does not rate as important as the health of adults and older children. I have no doubt everyone in this society would deny such a claim, but when we consider social attitudes and behaviour concerning health issues such as breastfeeding and birth it is undeniable.

Yesterday I discovered a local store had two large promotional displays of artificial breast milk (ABM) assembeled in their baby section. This is a violation of the World Health Organisation's code about advertising ABM. The World Health Organisation is very clear on the improtance of breastfeeding to the health of all babies (See "The World Health Organisation Says" section in the right hand sidebar of this site). In addition to WHOs 'stance, many scientific studies attest to the superiority of breast milk compared to ABM, and indeed give cause for great concern about the dangers ABM poses to the health and well being of babies (in the short and long term).

I gave the store the benefit of the doubt and assumed that the store manager was not aware of the violation or of their responsibility to promote good health for babies. I politely approached her about the issue to let her know. She was immediately rude and defensive and wanted to argue with me and make the issue personal. And I learned that I was wrong to give her the benefit of the doubt because she told me I was not the first to inform her of the code and recommend removing the promotional display. She simply chose advertising a product that promotes poor health and disregarded the concerns of educated consumers.

She implied that I was a breastfeeding mother intent on forcing my choices on others, she argued "some women just don't want to breastfeed and they have a choice and I'm allowed to advertise what I want in my store, except for cigarettes". I informed her that this is not a matter of choice it is a matter of health. Furthermore the danger ABM poses to the health is comparable to the danger cigarettes pose to health. But babies don't smoke, adults do. Adults don't drink ABM.

Moreover, I question how much the store manager turly values so-called choice, given that she had two large displays promoting feeding babies an inferior man-made artificial and dead substance and yet no equivalent promotion of feeding babies the superior, normal, natural, organic, living milk of mothers' breasts. Well, it hardly takes a genius to figure out why that is the case; breastfeeding doesn't make the store manager money!

Attitudes towards birth provide another example of how little this society values the importance of infant health. Scientifically we know that giving birth under the influence of narcotics, such as pethidine, compromises the health of unborn and newborn babies. Medical evidence supports the safety of homebirth and the danger of caesarean sections. Yet, almost 100% of Australian babies are born in hospitals where only 1-5% of babies escape these interventions (and more). And educated folks who share this information with others are accused of not respecting the choices of women who prefer to make birth choices which compromise the health of their babies and themselves.

Of course another glaringly obvious way our society refuses to acknowledge the humanity of babies is male infant genital mutilation. Our society refers to this abhorrent abuse of human rights politely as "circumscision". It is in fact the unnecessary and permenant mutilation of a baby boy's penis which poses health risks to him for life, including the potential for castration. Some people may point out that such a risk is low, but when you take into account that in this age; with awareness about hygeine, where there is rarely to never a medical justification for genital mutilation, and is almost always carried out for cosmetic reasons, facing such a risk, no matter how low, is ridiculous and sickening.

Just like birth and breastfeeding, the concept of choice gets thrown around when it comes to chopping up baby boy's penises. It's a parents' choice to mutilate their son's penis. It's a parents 'choice to give their babies a drugged start to life or increase their babies risk of death three fold by surgically removing baby from mother's womb. It's a parents' choice to compromise their babies immune systems, digestive systems, increase their risk of malnutrition, contimination and obesity in future life (to name just a few health consequences of ABM). Where, in all this, is the baby's choice?

Babies are people too. It is dispicable that so many babies are artificially fed, and almost 100% of those babies do not need ABM to survive. It is because ABM companies and stores profit from the sale of artificial infant milk that feeding a baby normal milk (which is their birthrite) has become one of two "choices". It is this easy access and insidious advertising of ABM that undermines a mother's breastfeeding journey and makes it easy for parents to deny their children breast milk.

Furthermore artificial infant formual does not need advertising! If a baby has a genuine medical need to eat something other than breast milk, then his or her parents can go in search of such a product (I was going to write "just as parents of a child with a gluten or lactose intolerance search for gluten and lactose free foods for their children", but that is an unfair comparison given that it is much harder to find gluten and lactose free products than it is to find artificial infant milk and yet there is a legitimate and widespread need for easy access to gluten and lactose free foods!). Promoting artificial feeding is more aptly compared to promoting artificial breathing products - IT DOESN'T NEED PROMOTING! We know it's needed in dire circumstances, and we'll get back to you if we suddenly struggle to breathe!

Breastfeeding is not a parent's choice! Breastfeeding is a baby's health requirement!



For information about the importance of breastfeeding and dangers of artificial breast milk read:

101 Reasons to Breastfeed Your Child

Artificial Feeding – Nothing To Do With Breastfeeding

Consumer Research on Infant Formual and Infant Feeding

Formula for Disaster

Genetic Engineering and Infant Foods

Hot Milk - The Unbottled Truth About Formula

IBFAN

International Breastfeeding Journal

Just One Bottle

Misinformation: Redefining Baby Feeding

Myths

Suck on This

Toxic Phthalates in Infant Formulas

The Case of The Virgin Gut

The Language of Breastfeeding

The Risks of Infant Formula Feeding

What Should I Know About Infant Formula

Yes! Just One Bottle Will Hurt!


For related articles at Ilithyia Inspired:

Those Not Breastfeeding Yet, Need Breastfeeding Support

The Personal is Political For Everyone But Me

Uncovering What Lies Behind Lactophobia

Breastfeeding Beyond Two Years