The origins of no bfing

[Jordansmommy]

I was recently visiting my grandmother and nursing DD as we chatted. She had 11 children and mentioned that she never nursed one because the doctors told her she had to mix up formula at home for them. My dad was the first in 1948 and so the doctor gave her a recipe - I can't remember the exact directions but it involved cow's milk and CORN SYRUP of all things. Blech! I asked her why they advised her to concoct something at home rather than make use of the fantastic stuff her body was making (free of charge I might add!) and she said it never occurred to her to ask.

So what I was wondering was, does anyone know the origins of all this advising women not to bf? What was the rationale? (foolish as it might be)

[Icequeen_in_ak]

I'll take COMPLETE IGNORANCE for 300 Alex!

I know that my own mother fed me evaporated milk and karo syrup... that was my formula.

She was told by her doctor that I couldn't eat her milk, that it was skim milk (HELLO... CAN YOU SAY FOREMILK!!!) therefore I needed to eat that other crap. And I wonder why I've been plagued with gastrointestinal problems my whole life.

Sadly... so many women never think to question a doctor

[Viola]

You should read Milk, Money, and Madness by Naomi Baumslag and Dia L. Michels. The book discusses the rise of artificial babymilks and the advertising.

It is in the financial best interests of those who can sell milk for babies to make breastfeeding seem inferior.

Part of it is probably tied in with the rise of modern medicine and births becoming medicalized. At some point in time, technology was touted as holding the anwers to everthing, and the natural ways were discarded. Of course, there were women who didn't breastfeed their children several hundred years ago, even when it meant certain death. That is the one thing I picked up from the abovementioned book. The death rate of children who were dry fed was astronomically high--I think something like 98% of children in orphanages died, and some people were looking for a way to bring this rate down. It was with the advent of some modern practices, like pasteurization, that these babies had a chance at living. Once they could do a few more things to it and call it scientifically prepared formula, I'm sure a lot of people really believed that it was better for babies than mother's milk.

[Messy Nessie]

I remember reading a little about this at some point... I believe that it has to do with the post WWII infatuation with all things scientific. I do believe that at that point the medical community preached that formula was better than breastmilk

OT, but have you ever thought about the word "formula"... in my mind it is a really strange way to refer to food fed to babies. I always think of math equations when I think of formulas, YK, a=2b-m, etc... i much prefer to refer to it as ABM, but in most places, people have no idea what I'm referring to!

[Jordansmommy]

Originally Posted by Amywillo

It is in the financial best interests of those who can sell milk for babies to make breastfeeding seem inferior.

Part of it is probably tied in with the rise of modern medicine and births becoming medicalized. At some point in time, technology was touted as holding the anwers to everthing, and the natural ways were discarded. Of course, there were women who didn't breastfeed their children several hundred years ago, even when it meant certain death. That is the one thing I picked up from the abovementioned book.

I was wondering about this but figured it had less to do with that since mothers had to make it at home rather than buy formula... though perhaps that was the first step towards formula marketing - convincing women that their breastmilk was not good enough. I guess if it's a choice between mixing stuff in your kitchen and buying something "engineered for your baby" most people would go with the big business...

Anyhow you'd think after the third or fourth child and dealing with your milk coming in you might think hey I oughta do something with this stuff!

Not to mention formula for 11 kids is not cheap!

[arthead]

It does seem that promoting FF (other than true need for ff, which then ff would be best) is just another thing to keep women's natural amazing powers for life-giving & sustaining at bay in order to make women feel weaker & raise corporate greed.

I haven't researched the histories of ff, but does anyone know of the founders of formula or the owner's of formula co's are in fact male? That would be so truth-telling, eh?

* a sidenote, my partner & I are planning to install stones in our bbq area. He said to me the other day "You know, I have NO idea how to do this... shouldn't we just pay the pro's to do it for us?" Um, yeah & pay them a couple thousand bucks for doing something that primitive man mastered thousands of years ago??? Moving stones around? Ugh. Sometime modern isn't as efficient, yk?

[Gidget]

Originally Posted by Jordansmommy

I was wondering about this but figured it had less to do with that since mothers had to make it at home rather than buy formula... though perhaps that was the first step towards formula marketing - convincing women that their breastmilk was not good enough. I guess if it's a choice between mixing stuff in your kitchen and buying something "engineered for your baby" most people would go with the big business...

Dh and I were watching some really old shows once on tv. Like back in the 50's I think. Some anniversary of some shows debut or some crap. Anyway they had it complete with actual commercials of some man showing a can of canned milk(can you guess what brand?)touting it as good for baby's growth. Blech. Those commercials made me so very sad for the people who were fed that. My mom was ff'ed, but at least it was actual store bought stuff(SMA my grandma said) and not some homemade caca. Ewww!

[NoraB]

I always think of math equations when I think of formulas, YK, a=2b-m, etc... i much prefer to refer to it as ABM, but in most places, people have no idea what I'm referring to!

The word "formula" (in the context of infant feeding) gives me the shivers. It brings to mind mad scientists and bubbling erlenmeyer flasks. But when I started using ABM, the ff moms I knew got all up in arms. They said I was suggesting that formula was something inferior...well, duh! *evil snicker*

I was wondering about this but figured it had less to do with that since mothers had to make it at home rather than buy formula... though perhaps that was the first step towards formula marketing - convincing women that their breastmilk was not good enough.

I think you're dead on about that. It's the slippery slope issue.

It does seem that promoting FF (other than true need for ff, which then ff would be best) is just another thing to keep women's natural amazing powers for life-giving & sustaining at bay in order to make women feel weaker & raise corporate greed.

So true. The sad part is that a lot of women (some I know personally) see formula as liberating to women. *sigh*

[mum2 4]

BAby doctors

When doctors began to specialize in babies, they needed all sorts of reasons to justify their new role. Modern woman could now have anethesia for birth & never know what happened. Then came the baby doctor to tell you exactly how to manage this new creature that someone handed you and said it was yours. My mother said he even told her how to make the baby's bed, how to concoct the formula, how to scrape and mash an artichoke and to give us bacon rind to chew on. Gerber had just begun to make little blue cans of processed food. But our doctor thought she should make her own purees to go with the canned milk, karo syrup and water that have given us such a lifetime of extra fat cells to fight. I have seen her friends spoon food into their babies with a tablespoon to get it done faster and add cereal to bottles to fill them up so they'd sleep 12 hours at night. All done on a 4 hour routine with no exceptions. I cried for an hour before each feeding and was thought to be a very bad girl. Needless ot say my children were bf on demand as I found a doctor who confined his advice to medical issues and trusts me to know how to make a bed & nurse a baby even though I needed surgical help to deliver some of them. I was awake and knew they were mine...

[abigailvr]

Originally Posted by mum2 4

...and to give us bacon rind to chew on...

Oh my god. ICK! Why??

[Viola]

Originally Posted by Jordansmommy

I was wondering about this but figured it had less to do with that since mothers had to make it at home rather than buy formula...

Whether you buy it premade, or make it, it was most likely a doctor telling you to do this. My mother had her first son in 1947. After a month of breastfeeding, she was panicky and didn't think it was going well. She started smashing up graham crackers in milk and giving him some of that. She went to the doctor when he was a month old and told the doctor the baby seemed really hungry and she was worried she didn't have enough milk. The male doctor told her that of course she didn't have enough milk, most women didn't, and she should buy some bottles and cans of evaporated milk and reconstitute it and feed that instead. I'm sure that had to seem like the right thing to do in that situation. Things could be measured and the advice was given by a doctor.

[Luv2Lact]

jumping in here!

When I had my twins, I was told to feed formula because it was next to impossible to exclusively tandem nurse two growing babies! And this was the year 2000!
I think that the doctors own stock in formula companies!

[soccerchic21]

Originally Posted by Amywillo

The male doctor told her that of course she didn't have enough milk, most women didn't,

That logic really amazes me. If that was the case then how in the heck did the human race get this far?

[Mavournin]

Originally Posted by Jordansmommy

So what I was wondering was, does anyone know the origins of all this advising women not to bf? What was the rationale? (foolish as it might be)

Among my many strange collections are my collection of old sex issues/midwifery/obstetrics books. DH recently added a 1936 edition of Obstetrics for Nurses

This is what I found...

While it was made clear that breastmilk was indeed a much better food for baby, it was stressed that many women cannot nurse for physical reasons like undeveloped glands or illness related reasons like active TB, syphilis, toxemia in pregnancy. It also says that it is too easy to underfeed and overfeed a baby at the breast, but that a mother should not nurse longer than 15 minutes a feeding (and only one breast per feeding) as it exhausts baby and mother. And "Most children unless trained improperly,... take only five and at the most six feedings in a day."

It advises against the chemical examination of breast milk, but goes on to say that mother's milk is "poorer in substances which provide building materials" to baby's growth. Meaning that since cow's milk has a higher protein and lower carbohydrate composition than breast milk, it must be better.

Like pre-war Atkins for baby? It's not all that different than today, Doctors preaching breast is best, but since science knows more than nature - lets feed our children this concoction instead. I think that this was a time in history where women were susceptible to these lies. Science in the 30s and 40s was paving the way for the modern era, and anything science produced was good. Look at the atom bomb, this was hailed as a great technological acheivement. Old habits dies hard, and I know too many women who say 'I was FF, and I'm fine, and this stuff is 'better' than what we had before How could it hurt my baby?'

[JaneS]

That's what my mom's dr. told her starting in the '60's... that bm wasn't that good for babies, and her husband wouldn't like it if she bf

I got the evaporated milk, Karo and water concoction too.

Poor mom is a huge lactivist now thanks to me, she's been very open to hearing about my research. We were just talking about guilt and the Nat'l BF Campaign today and she agrees its NOT guilt, its ANGER she feels about being fed a line of B.S.

[Rach]

I'm not sure where it started, but it branched off into so many different ways.
My mother was told in 1978 that formula was easier and just as good if not better for the baby. Same for me in 1981.
Luckily in 1984 we were poor so she had no choice but to breastfeed my sister and again in 1987 for my brother. My sister was a very sickly baby, but is a very healthy adult.

Luv2Lact: I think that the doctors own stock in formula companies!

I believe they do!! My daugther's pediatrician came new to the medical center and was pushing a certain kind of formula, over and over and over again, she said the same brand name, blah blah blah. She went to the back to get me a sample, and found they only had an entirely different brand.
Now, she doesn't push that first brand anymore. :|

[applejuice]

JMHO, but I think advertising and the love of anything new, technical, and medical in our culture is to blame.

Also, remember, wealthy women almost never breastfed their own children. They wanted their "figure" back, so they hired wetnurses to nurse their babies and probably supplemented with bottled cow's or goat's milk.

Therefore, NOT breastfeeding your own baby was a sign of moving upward economically.

Too bad.

[NoraB]

She went to the doctor when he was a month old and told the doctor the baby seemed really hungry and she was worried she didn't have enough milk. The male doctor told her that of course she didn't have enough milk, most women didn't, and she should buy some bottles and cans of evaporated milk and reconstitute it and feed that instead.

That makes me so angry and sad!

Poor mom is a huge lactivist now thanks to me, she's been very open to hearing about my research. We were just talking about guilt and the Nat'l BF Campaign today and she agrees its NOT guilt, its ANGER she feels about being fed a line of B.S.

Thumbs up to your mom! My mom now believes strongly in NIP and sustained breastfeed because of me. It's wonderful when we can be positive roll models for our parents!

[Slackermom]

I'm a social historian, so this question is right up my alley!

Around the 1920s, society became really enamoured with all things scientific, and the knowledge about infection and germs gained in World War I made all of society a bit crazy about cleanliness and using science to protect and improve their lives. At the same time, women were taking courses in "domestic science", to teach them methodical, scientific and sanitary ways to run a household. This coincided with the discovery of many previously unknown vitamins and nutrients, and a rise in supposedly "healthful" engineered diets (the work of Kellogg comes to mind). So society's new love of science was certainly one factor in the rise in forumla for babies. Breastfeeding was unscientific, and scientists (who were, for the most part, men) saw it as dirty.

Another was a perception that only the poor breastfed (this perception was spread by advertisers and formula manufacturers, of course). If you could afford to buy formula for your child (even if you couldn't, but wanted to keep up with the Joneses) that's what you would do.

Thirdly, and ironically, the emancipation of women, the suffrage movement, and the entrance of women into the workplace (especially in World War I) resulted in a whole new marketing niche: the "new" woman, who was carefree, not tied to her house, and had an active life outside the home. All kinds of time-saving devices began cropping up for this new breed of consumer, including forumla. No longer did women have to be with their babies all day, breastfeeding. They could use forumla, and continue to live a carefree, modern life.

So, we've had almost a century of manufacturers and advertisers spreading the message that formula is a-ok. Now, I guess, they can have the further benefits of marketing to all those ff babies who grow up to have diabetes, etc.

[Peppamint]

It's so sad, isn't it?

I don't know much about my mom's side of the family, how they fed their babies or anything. I do know my mom's sister FF all four of her kids.

My mom nursed us all for at least a few months, but had no support and was advised that formula was better, so grandma could feed bottles! She is not happy that she did not have support.

My dad's mom says she breastfed, but she is always talking about mixing milk and karo syrup so I don't know really how much she nursed, if at all. (she lived with a mentally unstable man for years and tends to remember only the good things, knowing I'm a lactivist she probably doesn't want to admit to not nursing).

My dad's grandma nursed all three of her babies until 9mo. She weaned them on their 9mo birthday. She seriously thinks that I don't have milk anymore for Jeremy (so I told her it drips if he goes too long w/o nursing) and now that she knows I still have milk, she is sure it must not have enough nutrition! She's coming around though.

I too think it has a lot to do wtih the WWII happenings... mom needed to be in the workforce and after the war, Americans were very much into materialistic things and I'm sure FF fits right in there somehow.