article about breastfeeding vs formula in The Ecologist

[Mama_Meme]

http://www.theecologist.co.uk/pages/...content_id=586

interesting read, thought y'all might like to check it out. (VERY long though)

[Nicole730]

thanks for posting

[Youngfrankenstein]

That was a great article. I do like the suggestions at the end. Can you imagine a world of no formula adverts and no free formula??? I'm sure breastfeeding rates would go through the roof.

A few things stuck out to me: This quote was very sad:

There was lots of topping up,’ says Professor Renfrew. ‘The way this
‘scientifi c’ breastfeeding happened in hospital was that the baby would be given two minutes on each breast on day one, then four minutes on each breast on day two, seven minutes on each on day three,
and so on. This created enormous anxiety since the mother would then be watching the clock instead of the baby. The babies would then get topped-up after every feed, then topped-up again throughout
the night rather than brought to their mothers to feed. So you had a situation where the babies were crying in the nursery, and the mothers were crying in the postnatal ward. That’s what we called ‘normal’ all throughout the 60s and 70s.’

I also loved how they pointed out the beautiful, whole grain, expensive food photos in the brochures were telling women they had to eat cleanly and expensively to breastfeed.

[sunflowergirll]

It was a great article. I have passed it on!

[proudmomof4]

Another thank-you note...
The part about the "beautiful, whole grain" etc. foods was really important for me. I've been interested in whole foods / nutrition even since before I had children and it would never have occured to me that these "delicatessen pictures" could actually scare women away from breastfeeding. ("It's for people who can afford to shop at ... but not for me.") For me, these same pictures gave more the message "Well, it doesn't necessarily look that nice when it's on my plate - but I'm doing something right!"

[SwanMom]

the link isn't working for me. Am I too late?

[MovingMomma]

The original link didn't work for me, but I think this is the same article: http://www.theecologist.org/trial_in...mula_food.html