Lactivist, Guilt, and MA

[goodygumdrops]

Hi Lactivists,

I could use your help brainstorming ideas for my master's thesis. I have been considering doing a paper concerning the tremendous amount of mother's guilt that has been wrenched into our society between formula feeders and breastfeeders. I love, love, love Melissa Bartick's commentary because it really creates an amazing visual for mother's struggling to accept their failure to breastfeed.

My chair and I have been discussing the role of guilt concerning health care decisions and the guilt role in women's lives. I am struggling with subtopics and really defining my place in this paper.

Any thoughts? I am beginning my literature review. I'll post back more in a bit

[spughy]

I think you would have to really carefully define "guilt" in your paper, and wow, you could go in any direction. How about something we haven't seen much work on, like corporate/institutional responsibility vs personal responsibility (why is there no hospital/state/health region guilt for crappy breastfeeding rates, when it's clear that health care providers' attitudes, services and abilities play a huge role?) Is there a link between Americans' confusion/refusal to fund public health care and the notion that whether or not a woman breastfeeds is entirely her choice/decision? Does the notion of breastfeeding guilt exist in cultures with less of an emphasis on individuality and personal responsibility?

Or... you could look at the history of this guilt, track down the first mentions in the media and subsequent flame-fanning and see if there was perhaps some financial interest on the part of some groups that the issue existed in the first place?

There's this myth that breastfeeding is easy and natural, thus if you're not doing it, it is totally your fault and you must feel guilty about that. In reality, in many cases it's hard work, VERY few women have ever had the opportunity to observe breastfeeding before being asked to do it, and it requires adequate social, cultural and medical support, which I would argue that MOST women in North America lack. As a culture, we all bear the guilt for that - but individual women? Not so much. And, where individual women consciously make choices that they know may harm their babies solely for reasons of convenience - is a bit of guilt all bad?

I think that the focus on guilt is a shield that protects two main culprits: a culture that is largely anti-breastfeeding despite making pretty noises to the contrary, by insisting that there are reasons to limit breastfeeding to a particular time or place and by making a big deal about exposing breasts in public; and a medical establishment that also makes pretty noises about supporting breastfeeding yet ensures that the vast majority of professionals who come into contact with breastfeeding women, or women who want to breastfeed, know virtually nothing about the physiology or psychology of breastfeeding AND in some cases who are actively in a conflict of interest by receiving funding, education or supplies from formula companies.

Does that help? If I was writing a paper like that, I would ask "Who benefits from 'breastfeeding guilt'?

[goodygumdrops]

Thanks for the brainstorming. I was stuck and you have helped lift my out of the cloudiness. I am going to process your response and get back to you....

[goodygumdrops]

I think you would have to really carefully define "guilt" in your paper, and wow, you could go in any direction.

Yes, I will definitely spend a main portion of the paper discussing the psychological and anthropological development of guilt. There are several authors that have addressed this in their works, including Katherine Dettwyler (sp?).


How about something we haven't seen much work on, like corporate/institutional responsibility vs personal responsibility (why is there no hospital/state/health region guilt for crappy breastfeeding rates, when it's clear that health care providers' attitudes, services and abilities play a huge role?)
I envision a chapter discussing the current social climate regarding mothers guilt. My thoughts surrounding guilt and institutions were mainly geared towards the medical arena however, I really like your idea of addressing the corporate responsibility for vs personal responsibility. For example, it’s perfectly reasonable to not expect a mother to want to sit in some nasty bathroom and have to pump multiple times a shift. Furthermore, some mom’s are just not as expressive as others and may be embarrassed to talk to their supervisors about finding a proper place to nurse, therefore, they just give up. Here the guilt should be placed on the corporate or government organization.


Is there a link between Americans' confusion/refusal to fund public health care and the notion that whether or not a woman breastfeeds is entirely her choice/decision? Does the notion of breastfeeding guilt exist in cultures with less of an emphasis on individuality and personal responsibility? Ohhhhh, I love this idea. I would love to look at research addressing this topic. Hmmmm….the axles are grinding.

Or... you could look at the history of this guilt, track down the first mentions in the media and subsequent flame-fanning and see if there was perhaps some financial interest on the part of some groups that the issue existed in the first place?

I think Jack Newman addresses this in his work. He has piece titled Guilt and Breastfeeding and he maintains that guilt is a product of formula pressure, misinformation, etc.

There's this myth that breastfeeding is easy and natural, thus if you're not doing it, it is totally your fault and you must feel guilty about that. In reality, in many cases it's hard work, VERY few women have ever had the opportunity to observe breastfeeding before being asked to do it, and it requires adequate social, cultural and medical support, which I would argue that MOST women in North America lack. As a culture, we all bear the guilt for that - but individual women? Not so much. And, where individual women consciously make choices that they know may harm their babies solely for reasons of convenience - is a bit of guilt all bad?

This begins a slippery slope. Ultimately as a lactivist, I would tend to question the convenience ideas but in light of the lack of adequate social, cultural and medical support, I question if they understand the true implications of not breastfeeding. We know that our system is broken but yet, we expect mothers to rise above it? I’m not so sure that’s feasible.

I think that the focus on guilt is a shield that protects two main culprits: a culture that is largely anti-breastfeeding despite making pretty noises to the contrary, by insisting that there are reasons to limit breastfeeding to a particular time or place and by making a big deal about exposing breasts in public; Yes!!

and a medical establishment that also makes pretty noises about supporting breastfeeding yet ensures that the vast majority of professionals who come into contact with breastfeeding women, or women who want to breastfeed, know virtually nothing about the physiology or psychology of breastfeeding AND in some cases who are actively in a conflict of interest by receiving funding, education or supplies from formula companies. THIS!!!
Does that help? If I was writing a paper like that, I would ask "Who benefits from 'breastfeeding guilt'?
That does really help me...thanks a bunch


Anyone else?

[kriket]

I think you're going to have to do a little bit of history (Just because I want to read your paper and I love history )
I think a lot of women still think that BFing is dirty or for poor or under privileged people because of the history of only foreigners and low class mothers breast feeding. Modernly, if you breastfeed, you 'have' to stay at home, which means you aren't a true feminist because you don't hold a job outside the home.
Ok, so I'd like to see some talk about how women have conflicting voices between being a "feminist" (ie a man, having a WOH job, being high powered in society) and being a mother. A lot of the ability to be good mothers has been lost IMO. My mom was SAH, but how many others? And if you take years off of your career to mother small children, how do you get back into the workforce?

I think that's where a lot of people's guilt of not breastfeeding comes from. They are trying to be too much. It's really not important (IMO) to have a big career and have a lot of professional success. It is important to raise healthy children. I know I have struggled with this. It is hard to be a good mom, and still be respected in the man's world.

When I quit my 9-5 job to raise my sprout I started babysitting along with my WAH job. (I still have to pay bills ). I had more than a few people comment about how I "was only" sitting, and how "nice" it will be for me to "not have to work" so I can stay with sprout. It killed me that this was coming from OTHER MOTHERS!!! If anything I work more now then I did in my 9-5. I just do a lot of my WOH work when Sprout is sleeping.

[MammaG]

Oh, I wasn't going to post, but I just had to chime in and agree with Kriket. I think you are going to have to take a look at feminism and how it's affected the valuing of women and women's roles INSIDE the home. Certainly we've come a long way to being recognized as powers in our own right in political and professional arenas, but at what expense to our home life and our children's health? Whatever a woman who becomes a mother decides to do there will be societal disapproval and guilt. Either she stays home (even the length of this will provoke guilt!) and is accused of 'wasting' her education and her vitality and value to society....but if she doesn't stay home, she risks censure and guilt for not nurturing her offspring appropriately.

I think we all live with breastfeeding guilt. I stayed home and nursed my boys for many years each and just started a nursing journey with a third child...but I sometimes wonder if giving them this relationship is worth the cost to our family in other ways...we're pretty financially challenged (we lost our house to foreclosure), we don't travel like I did as a child and they miss out on those opportunities. I homeschool but wonder if they would do better in a fantastic private school if I provided that instead. You know? Guilt either way.

The feminist ideal of 'having it all' seems hollow to me, and knowing that I've chosen my path and could have climbed a corporate ladder instaed if I'd wanted to do so still doesn't make me feel any less pulled in every direction. I suspect I'm not alone in this experience.

Make sure you come back and link your paper!

[goodygumdrops]

Oh yeah, I was totally planning on a chapter on feminism. I am finding lots of material related to working mothers and guilt. I believe that this may be transferring into breastfeeding due to the correlation between working mothers and low milk supply which often lead to the termination of breastfeeding relationship.

I have to say, that I don't have many lactivist friends in real life so it's really enlightening for me to be able to have a dialogue with others....THANKS

[mambera]

Originally Posted by spughy

I think that the focus on guilt is a shield that protects two main culprits: a culture that is largely anti-breastfeeding despite making pretty noises to the contrary, by insisting that there are reasons to limit breastfeeding to a particular time or place and by making a big deal about exposing breasts in public; and a medical establishment that also makes pretty noises about supporting breastfeeding yet ensures that the vast majority of professionals who come into contact with breastfeeding women, or women who want to breastfeed, know virtually nothing about the physiology or psychology of breastfeeding AND in some cases who are actively in a conflict of interest by receiving funding, education or supplies from formula companies.

And my question is, why have the people who *are* focused on support for mothers and children in this country allowed themselves to be so sidetracked by corporate self-service thinly disguised as 'family-friendliness'?

I mean seriously, we are supposed to be happy about legislation that requires employers to let us pump our boobs while we leave our kids in daycare so we can suit up and go serve the Man? This is so clearly a piece of legislation that benefits employers and NOT mothers or children, and yet it's being hailed as some great family-friendly breakthrough.

So what, now we should really feel guilty for letting work interfere with bf'ing bc it is so easy to just pump right? Never mind the logistics, or that pumping doesn't even work for lots of women and results in a supply spiral.

You can keep your stinking pump, Corporate America. I want some freaking maternity leave. (Pumping as I type )

[goodygumdrops]

So true!!!!

[spughy]

Originally Posted by mambera

You can keep your stinking pump, Corporate America. I want some freaking maternity leave.

You should put this on a T-shirt. Or a bumper sticker.

[kriket]

Originally Posted by mambera

I mean seriously, we are supposed to be happy about legislation that requires employers to let us pump our boobs while we leave our kids in daycare so we can suit up and go serve the Man? This is so clearly a piece of legislation that benefits employers and NOT mothers or children, and yet it's being hailed as some great family-friendly breakthrough.

I am glad I'm not the only one who feels like this!!! I would sit there in my break room listening to the fridge run, thinking "Oh... Thank you great society that gives me the 'privilege' of pumping at work...." Kinda felt like I was complaining about a privilege. Then I thought, I am NOT thankful for a society that makes me work 8 weeks after I bring a life that is 100% dependent on me "

I had NO maternity leave. Just what I saved up from selling my car and while TTC. I even had people make comments about how "lucky" I was to be able to save the money. Yeah, lucky.

[proudmomof4]

"The Politics of Breastfeeding" would also be a good place to look for more input (Gabrielle Palmer).

A hint from me in my function as European: as we all know, Europe has a lot friendlier maternity laws in comparison to the U. S. - and still we have countries there with relatively low breastfeeding rates. It's not just about legislation (even though that's an important step) but a question of prioritizing.

Germany (I'm German) is working on providing more places for toddlers and babies in daycare - the European Union has repeatedly stated that we need to work on this. At the same time, I don't even see that the staff in preschools / daycares would even know how to store pumped breastmilk. So it's again the mother's job to educate herself and the people around her.