The Breastfeeding Conundrum

By Paula Claycomb

Having worked for many years with UNICEF, I should have remembered that 1-7 August is Global Breastfeeding Week. But it was only when I opened my local newspaper, the Santa Fe New Mexican, that I was reminded of this annual campaign to universalize breastfeeding.

The editorial disturbed me. It was not its tone, which clearly favored breastfeeding. No, it was my incredulity that in 2015, many Americans challenge breastfeeding whether done in private or in a public place. It is not, of course, an attitude in the U.S. alone.

The editorial emphasized the huge and well-documented advantages of breastfeeding. “Babies who don’t use formula have reduced risks of obesity, respiratory infections, Type 2 diabetes, asthma, ear infections, stomach ailments and SIDS,” it said. It cited Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data that 80 percent of New Mexican babies are breastfed at birth, but this decreases to less than 52 percent by age three months. Benefits are generally regarded as optimal if a baby consumes breast milk exclusively for a full year.

I was reminded of the commotion on social media last May as a mother breastfed her infant in an Indiana restaurant. A man, unknown to her, took a picture and posted it on Facebook and Instagram in protest asking “if this is appropriate or inappropriate as I’m trying to eat.” He added that there were “little kids around” and “could you at least cover your boob up?”

To her credit, the mother, Connor Kendall, responded on Facebook, setting off 70,000 heated exchanges within a few days. But how did it end? It is disheartening to have to defend such healthy and natural behaviour in the 21st century.

The resistance to breastfeeding in the workplace is also a problem. As recently as 2009, only 25 percent of employers in the US had an on-site mother’s room in 2009. Even family members may pressure the mothers to use baby formula, often citing convenience. Unforgivable are nurses and doctors who bow to infant formula manufacturers who falsely promote the breast milk substitute as equally protective of newborns and infants.

Reading the editorial, I was reminded of the never-ending challenges involved in creating or changing people’s attitudes, especially in the face of longstanding social norms and practices. We’ve seen successful campaigns promoting helmets and seat belts, ending littering and initiating recycling, immunization and, yes, breastfeeding. I love being part of such campaigns to promote progressive social change, mostly in countries not as privileged at the US.

At Rain Barrel Communications, many of us use a variety of models and innovative concepts like positive social deviance to promote positive behaviour and social change. But despite the ever-increasing channels of communication and the ever-more sophisticated technologies available to us, we still stumble in the face of puzzling taboos. I can’t help but wonder what has gone wrong with communication when we have to keep repeating the mantra, in person or on Facebook, that Mother Nature provides the best-ever food to babies.