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06/16/2006
Mechanical bullshit
A two-year national breastfeeding awareness campaign that culminated this spring ran television announcements showing a pregnant woman clutching her belly as she was thrown off a mechanical bull (.MPG) during ladies' night at a bar — and compared the behavior to failing to breastfeed.
"You wouldn't take risks before your baby's born," the advertisement says. "Why start after?"
— "Breast Feed or Else," by Roni Rabin in The New York Times, June 13, 2006
Smart people all over the Internet have responded to this latest salvo in the ongoing culture-wide war against mothers who do...anything, intelligently addressing almost every one of the issues that occurred to me as I considered the New York Times article and the public health initiative it describes. I admire their ability to take it seriously, to engage with it on its own terms, because I'm finding it hard to do. I mean, come on: a mechanical bull?
Now, I'm the first to admit I don't know everything there is to know about el toro mecánico peligroso que come Travolta para el desayuno, but to the best of my knowledge, the only place you're likely to find one is in a bar circa 1982. And your average mother-to-be who "doesn't take risks before [her] baby's born" isn't likely to be whiling away the last few weeks of her pregnancy in a smoke-filled liquor-fumed bull-equipped den of iniquity. So they lost me immediately with that.
But just for the sake of argument, let's stipulate that the bar is smoke-free; she's there to enjoy a healthful virgin daiquiri made with pineapple — hel-looooo, infertiles; she's just hoisted her swollen feet onto an adjacent barstool to tell the bartender — who happens to be her legal spouse, all nice and legitimate — about her latest OB appointment while he nods and murmurs affectionate encouragement; the naked blonde dancing on the bar is not in fact a stripper but a childbirth educator demonstrating the proper position for opening one's pelvis during labor; and she's patiently awaiting the arrival of her dealer, who's promised her a taste of the purest white Colombian. Colombian prenatals, people, completely uncut with baby laxative or Drano. Seriously good shit.
So maybe with that out of the way I can give the ad its due. It's problematic for a number of reasons, as the writers linked above explain. The objection to which I'm most sympathetic is the one voiced by mothers who tried to breastfeed but who failed. "I felt so guilty," said one mother of twins about her inability to feed her children, whose pediatrician demanded that she supplement with formula when her babies failed to thrive. The ad, critics say, will only exacerbate such feelings among women who were unable to breastfeed.
When I think about the difficulty I had feeding Charlie, I am convinced that I did everything I could have done to get him to breast. That's not to say I did everything anyone could have, as I know women and children in far more challenging circumstances manage where I did not. But I did the best I could at the time, and isn't that all we should ask of ourselves?
The ads don't inspire feelings of guilt in me because, please, mechanical bull. I also know Charlie and I both benefited at least as much as we would have if I'd continued. Nevertheless, it would be dishonest to say that I never feel pangs at my choice to stop trying, because for me, it was just that, a choice. By the time Charlie was able and I was able, I was just so goddamned tired. Occasionally I do wish I'd found it in myself to stick it out. But just as I knowingly took on, say, the increased risk of ear infections when I elected to stop, I accepted the burden of guilt as a condition of that choice.
Other women, however, have that choice taken from them, by misinformation, by medication, by a start so bad it dooms the entire enterprise, by a thousand different conditions that descend on them when they're vulnerable. It's terribly sad that their reaction to the ad might be to blame themselves.
But I'm not sure the makers of the ad should be faulted for that. After all, can we really be made to feel guilty without our consent? If we truly tried to breastfeed, doing everything within our power to do so, then why can't we feel easy with that? Why can't we give ourselves a break? And why do we allow a television commercial — a television commercial starring a mechanical fucking bull — to shake our confidence in our efforts?
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What a ridiculous commercial!
I really hope that this doesn't turn into another debate, though, where La Leche Leage members are called boob nazis.
I suppose the ad was aimed at women like me who chose not to breastfeed. CHOSE not to. Not tried like hell and failed. Not "was denied the chance to try" by circumstances out of my control. I CHOSE not to breastfeed daughter(for my own personal reasons). It's women like me that get the "boob nazis" up in arms. I can take the heat, but women who did try and try and try and try, women who adopt, women who just CAN'T but desperately want to, it's those women who will be hurt by this type of advertising. It's a shame.
On another hand, why can't we feel easy with a decision from the start to not breastfeed? Why do we have to have tried everything first, what about people who decide from the start? This - like so many other issues (circumcision, vaccinations, sleeping arrangements, food introduction, prenatal activity, schooling, ohmygodEVERYTHING) - is a no-win situation for everyone involved in "the debate". Having been viciously attacked (and I do mean attacked) for some of my own decisions, I've come to believe that the only way to "be easy" with your decisions is to totally and completely avoid articles, magazines, shows, and books that are only there to tell you you are wrong. And that is a LOT of material sadly. So that is me, staying out of "the debate" on a million issues because not only do I have very little time and energy to be hated, I have very little time and energy to care about the people doing the hating.
Motherhood is effing hard enough, you know? Why all the shit?
*grumble*
Excellent deconstruction of said ad. I fully breastfed my sixkids, which I'm not boasting about. However, I supported my friends who could not, for whatever reason, continue to breastfeed. I don't see how a guilty mother makes a better mother.
Julie thanks for bringing this up. I was going to post about this very topic this week, but chose not to for my own sanity. I have been struggling a lot lately with potential PPD and with the constant feeling of guilt over "not being a perfect mother" at every instant. To, on top of everything, have the Federal Government come at me this week and tell me I am a horrible mother because I do not breastfeed my child is, frankly, more than I can take right now, and thus I opted not to post about it on my own blog because I am too fragile for the attacks it might open me up to.
I never tried to breastfeed my daughter. I chose to bottle-feed from day one. Period, end of story. The way I see it, if my own OB/GYN didn't have any issue with this choice of mine, than no one else should either. I absolutely empathize with women who so desperately want to breastfeed and are unable to. To make them, or me, feel like they are lesser mothers because they formula-feed is atrocious. In fact it is irresponsible.
I had a really difficult time, spent lots of money on lactation consultants, and pumped for what seemed like forever. I really hate that I let so much of the first seven months of my son's life be about breastmilk. Strangely, when he finally started breastfeeding, it actually seemed less convenient than pumping. Oh, and the biting. I've been meaning to blog about this, but it's such a touchy subject.
I breastfed my daughter for 11 months. It was a breeze. I have good friends who weren't able to. They didn't stress about it, they just got some formula, and enjoyed life.
Sheesh. Yes, breast milk is best. I suppose that ad is good for people who have no clue that breast milk is better than formula.
But to compare it to possibly killing your child by riding a mechanical bull?
It's almost laughable.
I hate that something as contentious as this subject brings out my first post to your blog, which is wonderful. And when I read your blog I feel mildly ridiculous, because I haven't even started to try to conceive, and I came by it(your blog) entirely by accident, but stayed for the excellent writing.
That said.
Yes, the ads are laughable, and the mechanical bull comparison is ridiculous. Remember the brief period of time where the marketing geniuses turned a baby bottle into an hour glass with milk dripping through it to symbolize the quick passage of time? Awful.
But. It's the truth. It. Just. Is. Just because we don't like it, doesn't mean a public awareness campaign isn't necessary. Certainly our children aren't going to have terrible lives if we don't breast feed. But breast feeding is preferred - it is the best thing we can do for our babies nutritionally. Disseminating that knowledge is important, although admittedly it's done obviously by men. And, let's face it, trying to have children after the age of 35 is more difficult than it is at 25. All of this is unfair. It all sucks. But it IS our biology, and it IS what's best for babies, and while it's hideously unfair, it's a fact. I sometimes wonder what would happen if we stopped fighting so violently our biology, and accepted it? Some things, physically, have simply been proven, and the breast milk is best is one of them. Will your child have a happy, flourishing life without it? Of course. But knowing the facts, one way or the other, is vital. We don't encourage smokers to continue just because they don't want to be told it's bad for them, and we don't encourage casual sex just because we want to have it - sometimes biology and genetics really sucks - this is one of them.
I almost wrote on this one as well.
To compare formula with smoke or mechanical bull is bullshit. I have to agree.
I disagree with the previous poster. I feel there is no need for a public awareness campaign. Good lord, in the age of the internet, don't you think most women do some sort of research on this?
We have a choice to make on how to feed our children and we don't go out of our way to make a public awareness campaign on how kids have to avoid McDonald's or it is equivalent of throwing them on a mechanical bull.
Sigh... Why do people feel the need to tell others what is best for them?
Courtney, thanks for speaking up. One spot-on criticism of the ad campaign is that it's shooting at the wrong target, putting the onus on women 70% of whom breastfeed initially rather than on their employers, who have no policies in place to support breastfeeding mothers who want to continue after they return to work.
The fact is that most women do know that breastfeeding is optimal. In fact, this take points out that according to CDC research, "only 16.6% of Americans believe that babies should not be breastfed for at least the first six months."
So I'm not sure it makes sense to suggest that women are uneducated or in denial about the benefits of breastfeeding. I'm sure some are, but the bigger societal problem seems to be the lack of support for mothers who do it. And that's something the ad and the larger public health campaign don't even begin to address.
I'm married to that mystical "rocket scientist" (PHD in physics with an IQ that's through the roof) who was bottle-fed from day one. He's not allergic to anything.
Since I personally believe that both IQ and susceptibility to allergies have much more to do with genetics than with nutrition I'm not going to feel guilty about ANY nutritional choice that I will make for my child(ren). I simply intend to do what works for us. If breastfeeding works, great. If it doesn't, I don't intend to lose a moment's sleep over it. :-)
"After all, can we really be made to feel guilty without our consent?"
I'd buy you a pony for this, but what if it turned wild and you rode it while pregnant. Talk about feeling guilty.
I wrote about this as well, and got some really great, thought-provoking comments.
What really bugs me is the missed opportunity cost of time and effort and money. We could have used that ad space to EDUCATE women (especially urban, younger, poorer or minority women) about the benefits of breast feeding and allowed them to make an educated decision. Scaring someone into BF isn't healthy, it's just mean, especially given the emotional rollercoaster most women are on after having a baby.
As others have pointed out (especially Bitch, PhD in a hilarious post), this ad seems to have come out in a bit of a vacuum. I can list about a dozen friends and family members that wanted to BF, tried to BF, and found that going back to work did not jive with BF. Where's the mandatory 6 months maternity leave? Or the daycare subsidy, or hell, free breast pumps? What about economic incentives to women to stay home. I'm not saying I'm all for everyone being a SAHM, but if the govt is going to threaten women into BF, it should make it a little bit more feasible to actually do it.
Bravo!
I consider myself a breastfeeding advocate and I hate those commercials just as much as any political ad campaign I've ever seen. There is so much positive about breastfeeding, why go straight to the negative scare tactics? Why not get some current idol of motherhood, like Angelina Jolie (who has very nice breasts, by the way) to do a PSA? Wouldn't that be lovely (and much much much more effective without being a slap in the face to those who used formula out of necessity)?
We all can only do our best and the good thing is that it's almost always good enough. More than good enough.
The worst, most horrible, terrible night in my life was the first night home with my babies. These boob nazis just don't know what it's like to hold babies to their breasts who are painfully wailing because there just isn't anything there. I was sobbing...they were sobbing...no one was getting any sleep. I was just evil. The next morning the visiting nurse (totally awesome woman) said to me "You know, it's not an all or nothing situation. You may just have to supplement, and that's o.k.". So I do, I have never had enough to pump, and my supply always dwindles in the evening, but my children are breastfed about 80-85% of the time. Supplementing has given me a break away from the babies, much needed sleep at night, and a chance for my husband to feed and bond with his sons (all possible to do without formula if you can pump enough to put aside...which I can't). I wish I could go back in time to that terrible night and ask my husband to give my hungry babies a bottle, and realize that it wasn't the end of the world. The crap that ppl put in new parents' heads...I swear!
And to follow on Julie's remarks, that is the biggest issue with all of this -- we have expectations of women as mothers but give them NO FUCKING SUPPORT in order to fulfill those expectations. I mean, why are we still staging nurse-ins if the breast is so preferable to formula feeding? Why isn't the federal government creating a campaign to tell Starbucks and every other establishment that they will go down if they try to kick out a nursing mother?
And why aren't they demanding that every employer give women flex time, paid maternity leave, work from home time, and comfortable pumping rooms (that aren't bathrooms or broom closets) so they can actually continue to breastfeed while maintaining their profession and financial security?
No, they don't do that b/c that would involve putting blame on the corporate machine and our society as a whole... If our government took that approach, I think they would ensure a heck of a lot more breastfeeding in this country. But no, let's just throw some more guilt on the mothers who are just trying to a) produce and expel a HUMAN BEING from their bodies, b) care for said human being, c) continue to be able to afford said human being, and d) retain some bit of sanity through the whole process during which they receive little to no support.
You know, I breastfed my daughter for the first eleven months, but it was hard as hell. And on all those occasions that I was ready to quit, an ad like this would not have made a shit of difference. What would have made a difference was a more flexible employer who understood what I was trying to do... And you know what, when I did finally hang up the boobs, I was sick as a dog with a terrible stomach virus where I literally couldn't leave my bed to throw up for a week. Thankfully, I was at my parents' house and my mom was able to take care of my daughter and feed her formula. Yikes, how can I live with myself??
I'm delurking to comment. I've read your blog for a very long time. My story is very similar to yours. My son was born at 28 weeks. I pumped while he was in the NICU. I attempted to pump when he came home. He was on O2 so it made it very difficult to try to nurse. I was so tired I didn't even try. He has reflux and lactose intolerance. As soon as the doctor suggested we try soy formula I jumped all over it. It was like I needed a reason to quit because I felt so guilty if I had just quit on my own. I saw the ad and it made me so mad I felt sick. We don't need anyone to make us feel any more guilty. It seems to me most mothers no matter what choice they make seem to find something to feel guilty about. My son is now 5 months actual and we both are doing so much better with formula. Great comments!!!
I agree Julie, employers need to support working mothers. I am exclusively pumping b/c my baby wasn't gaining weight and the Dr. said I must supplement. I chose to do it with expressed breast milk. However, I have good support and resources to be able to pump 10 times a day (at the beginning) not everyone does. I have to go back to work at 4 1/2 months and I am already anxious about where, when and how I can pump. I found you b/c of your posts on pumping. I have had all of the same challenges you have had plus two bouts of mastitis. My baby would breast feed for over an hour and then scream and gulp down the expressed breast milk. My boobs were so sore I was dying. I saw 5 lactation consultants. No one could help. I think like you; "my let down is for shit". It takes me an hour to empty my breasts pumping. But I still pump. Even with resources and education all the lactation consultants told me exclusive pumping couldn't be done. I found support on the internet finally. The point is, most people will get the message that you are a failure if you can't breastfeed period, and that there is no other option. I know I felt that way until I could figure out how to pump ten times a day.
If men were the ones breastfeeding this issue would be dealt with in a much better way. There would be lacation rooms in every workplace and there would probably be "lactation leave". Pumps would be covered by insurance. Instead of making women feel guilty, why isn't money spent on helping support women to breastfeed and pump? Why is WIC paying for formula for low income women but not breast pump rental fees? I agree with the fact that breast milk is best, just not the methods of this ad campaign.
i agree with the comments about this government money perhaps being better used to actually support women to breastfeed-- paid maternity leave and partner leave, freast pumps, free lactation consultants and breast feeding classes.
One of my coworkers got an hour off a day (in addition to a one hour lunch) to attend a daily smoking-cessation program. Yet the same manager who approved that gave a BF mom an ultimatum about using 'work time' to pump- she was ORDERED to only pump on her lunch break or be forced to use her vacation time for time spent pumping.
I know I've already commented... but here I go again.
Breast is NOT always best.
If mama wants to kill herself or can't stop crying long enough to take proper care of her baby or teeters on the edge of a personal breakdown or has sexual abuse flashbacks while breastfeeding or is disgusted by her body and can't nurse without disgust and comtempt or is in any kind of psychological danger for any other reason and can not bring herself to either start of continue breastfeeding...
BREAST IS NOT ALWAYS BEST.
Breast MILK is better than FORMULA and that is a big, BIG difference.
What is UNDOUBTEDLY best for babies is an alive, sane mother. Having an alive, sane mother *far* outweighs any potential health benefits of breastmilk.
Ads like this piss the holy living hell out of me. All it means is that there is one more woman out there breastfeeding her baby through floods of depressive tears, ripping her heart out with guilt because she knows (and she is RIGHT) that she will be ripped to shreds by people who are supposed to be supporting her when they found out that *gasp* she had to take care of her own needs as well as baby's needs.
OMG I seriously need to go to bed and never talk about this again.
Sorry if that was me being a jerk. :(
I tried. I didn't feel guilty that it didn't work. I'm just glad I tried.
I've been fuming about that piece in the Times since Tuesday. I'm still nursing my almost 10 month old son, but only because it's been easy. But I almost didn't want to breastfeed because of the anti-woman politics that are so often associated with it.
As I've said before, the people who treated me with the least amount of respect and regard--through infertility, a neurotic pregnancy, and an emergency c-section--were the lactation consultants. Maybe that was just my bad luck, but it's hard not to take it personally.
Every time I read the phrase "boob nazi," I get depressed. I guess I could be called a boob nazi, but really. Breastfeeding advocacy is so important to me because I have friends who wanted to breastfeed, and failed. Not due to lack of information but due to lack of proper support and really, really bad information. I'm aghast that breastfeeding can be seen as anti-woman, and while I really despise the term "mommy wars," it's becoming more and more clear to me that the folks benefitting from all this are the formula companies, and the ones that are taking the fall are the mothers. Not the babies - most babies WILL do just fine on formula. But the mothers. The ones who try and fail. The ones who want to be supportive and yet take flack for feeling passionately about this topic. I'm a breastfeeding advocate because I'm a feminist. And this whole topic just makes me sad any more.
I totally "get" the reasons you were unable to breastfeed Charlie. I totally "get" the reasons some of my friends were unable to breastfeed their children. However, I also "get" the reasoning behind encouraging more women to breastfeed. There ARE benefits. So, are you saying that anything promoting the benefits of breastfeeding is going to make somebody *feel bad*, so in order to keep everything all nice, then we shouldn't make an effort to educate? You know, just so people don't get their feelings hurt? You know, perhaps the commercial (which I have not seen) is in poor taste, I don't know, but perhaps it also gets people to think. Which cannot be a bad thing. Well, unless you are sooooooo politically correct that you are not allowed to think anymore.....
"Not due to lack of information " should read, "Not due to lack of trying." Late. Tired. Depressing topic.
"I am convinced that I did everything I could have done... That's not to say I did everything anyone could have..."
I just love this idea. All we can expect from ourselves is our best, not someone else's best. Lots of fighting in the mommy wars could probably be alleviated if more people thought about things this way.
I chose not to breastfeed. I've had chronic depression my entire life, and have been medicated for it since I was 15. I knew that the crash of hormones combined with my mental health history warranted me going back on an SSRI as soon as possible. Yes, there are people who breastfeed and take their meds, but I just didn't feel right about it.
What an ass-hatted sweeping generalization this commercial makes. It's like like having a stranger come up to you and public and say horrible things to you as you bottle-feed your baby.
No one ever did that to me, but boy, did I have an ugly response prepared.
I can't help but thing that a public awareness campaign on breastfeeding would be more productively applied to those people that surround the nursing mother, particularly in the workplace.
If you're going to go for ridiculous imagery to make the point, showing the pregnant mother doing something obviously hazardous on the job with the comment, "You wouldn't endanger your employee for the sake of her job, so why endanger her baby by not providing the time and space necessary to let her pump breastmilk for her baby" (I'm no ad writer, so I know it's kludgy)
Particularly for women in non white-collar hourly wage jobs with no paid time off, conditions that allow her to provide breastmilk to her child simply don't exist, whether or not she's aware that it's better for her child. (Not being evicted is better for her child, too.) Aiming the guilt at her - at an entire large segment of the parenting population - is seriously meanspirited. Far better to push to make it socially unacceptable for employers to ignore that fact.
My thoughts. Breastfeeding: when it works, awesome (still nursing little fourteen month-old hyena over here). Breastmilk: theoretically awesome; empirically a SMALL advantage, not a gigantic one. Ad: freaking stupid; perhaps the dumbest one since that Partnership for a Drug-Free America ad which implied that pot-smoking will get you pregnant (I do miss that one; it was ever so satisfying to waddle up and shriek at my TV, "THEY'RE RIGHT, PEOPLE! FOR ONCE, THEY'RE RIGHT!").
It's all about the small circle. Breastfeed if you possibly can (I don't really get opting out if it's at all possible; there seems to be enough positive data to support even a half-hearted try, no?). Help your friends and family to breastfeed. But stay the holy hell out of other womens' lives unless invited. Why not have a strong, healthy impact over a small circle, rather than spread waves of guilt and annoyance over a large one?
Tried it, managed a little while, failed, I blame it on my c-section and a raging case of PPD plus no help taking care of an exhausting little infant. Baby needed more food than I could provide, no matter how hard I tried, and I was experiencing the worst depression of my life. Switched to bottle feeding so he would get enough, and so I could take one tiny burden off of myself. If I'd seen this ad then, I'd have told them to fuck the hell off.
Well actually I still would.
He got all I could produce for six weeks, and I feel good about that.
this has been debated on several boards I'm on so, I apologize for reposting...but I'm lazy.
First of all I want to say, I'm tired of people saying that such and such was done for them and they are fine. Yes, none of us wore seatbelts and we are fine (those that are not fine are dead) Sure, there are lots of people who were formula fed and had no increase in illness, allergy, they are brain surgeons etc etc. There are however real scientific links to a rise in risk. A guarantee? no. A significant rise in risk. Just b/c one had antecdotal stories that are contrary to reports findings, does not make it scientific evidence.
ok...I'm going to play devil's advocate here.
You are very discerning mothers who made an educated choice about bottlefeeding after you tried to breastfeed. You are NOT who they are trying to reach. You take your child to his/her scheduled appointments and get the vaccinations, had great prenatal care. You are an educated consumer who looks out for the best health of your child and have access to regular medical care.
I understand how a warning label might make you feel. I really do. But try to remember who they are trying to reach. The undereducated, underinsured, underemployed mothers who are still being influenced by the governments preaching 50 years ago that formula was BETTER than breastmilk. for many of these mothers (in my experience working with this part of the population) breastfeeding is never even considered. They have had no prenatal care, show up at an emergency room ready to deliver, they get treated like crap by the staff, and then are handed by hospital staff a bag of formula. To them it seems like formula is doctor recommended. These babies may or may not qualify for medicaid, may or may not get their vacs, may or may not have mothers that can qualify for food assistance and so may or may not get even formula for all of their feeds.
I work with an organization that seems to many to be PUSHING breastfeeding by many middle and upper-middle class mothers, but they are not the ones we are trying to reach. And while I think this may be an ineffective campaign and I hate the way the media is stirring it up, I'm pretty sure this is where it stems from.
Yes, I think the govt does have right to open it's mouth in this instance to educate, b/c they (as in we) are footing the bill first for all of the formula, when in many instances education and lactation support can cut that cost. And then a second time when uninsured children with an ear infection end up getting treated in an ER b/c they have no primary healthcare provider. (just one example)
I also agree that the money would be better spent in one on one education with lactation consultants, but a public health campaign is called for. Just not one that is this stupid.
I know that I was so stressed for so long to feed my son only breastmilk thinking if I supplemented my supply would go down and that would be so awful. When I quit and he got formula, my life got exponentially easier. Especially because of the lack of support at work for pumping. And yet I had all these guilty feelings because I was supposed to be BFing. Honestly, we all have enough to feel guilty about. I should have felt triumphant that I made it that far.
Chiming in to respond to Ally - Ally, I think the difference between the breastfeeding "Nazis" and a breastfeeding advocate is HUGE.
There's a difference between being there to support people vigorously who are ASKING for the support. It's quite another to accost a woman in a supermarket when she's buying formula to ask why she's not breastfeeding, and doesn't she know that she's hurting her child, and etc etc ad nauseum.
Anyone remember the Mommy DriveBy from Grrl's blog about the above situation, and then the woman buying the formula raised her shirt to reveal that she'd had a double mastectomy?
That's the kind of shit I equate with the BFNs (not THAT kind of BFN, sorry).
Julie said "After all, can we really be made to feel guilty without our consent?" And the answer is Nope. :) Well stated.
I read the recent print ads, I saw the commercial, and they piss me off because they put all the responsibility on one person.
If you don't breastfeed, it's YOUR fault. It's not your partner's fault for not helping and supporting you, it's not your HMO's fault for not providing adequate medical help, it's not your employer's fault for not letting you pump, it's not the government's fault for not giving a good goddamn about maternity leave or childcare, it's just YOUR fault.
What a bunch of crap.
It's not like women can just click their heels together and murmur "Breastmilk is best, breastmilk is best" and suddenly overcome all the social, economic, and medical issues in their way, but I guess with the help of this ad campaign, they can feel really BAD about it.
Wheeeeee.
I agree with so many of the commenters. The government should take that crappy advertising money and put it into resources that women need to help them breastfeed.
Here in Australia we are very, very lucky to have a reasonable public health system and a history of strong unions. We have a free lactation support clinic at our major birthing hospital in this city, and another lactation support clinic in the Northern suburbs (they're the ones I know of) Mum's can drop in at any time - no appointments required - and get help from a midwife/lactation consultant.
Every worker that I know of here gets a year of unpaid maternity leave. Most jobs get 6 weeks of maternity leave on full pay. I am fortunate enough to get 12 weeks of fully paid maternity leave. We have a union agreement that includes breastfeeding/pumping breaks. We have a breastfeeding/pumping room supplied at my work. I work with many new mum's most of whom have breastfed for 6 months at least because they can. The resources provided allow them to do so.
You seem lumbered over there with an expensive, frustrating and under-achieving health system. Employers give crappy maternity leave (if any) and workers are not protected. Things here aren't perfect, but maybe they're an example that can be taken to your politicians of how that money for the crappy ad could be better spent.
I agree with the gal who said an encouraging ad with Angeline Jolie (or similar) would be better. I like the "Got Milk?" ads I have seen - they could do something similar with babies maybe? Even I feel defensive at the bull riding ad, and I don't even have a baby yet. I can only imagine how mums with babies feel about it. I would respond much better to an ad that promoted the positive health benefits, the reduced cost and lack of equipment required for breastfeeding. And take less of an all-or-nothing approach. Even a baby that's getting 1 or 2 breastfeeds a day reaps the benefit of breast milk. It doesn't have to be all boob to be good.
The ad amazes me. The message it delivers is agressive. I assume that pregnant women get enough information about what to do when the baby arrives, the pro's and cons of every action, etc. so that she can make her own balanced choices. Comparing a choice for breastfeeding or not with a mecanical bull is ridiculous. It stroke me, not being an American, as a campaign from a conservative, fingerpointing, intolerant republican gouvernment.
(And, as Julie justfully remarkes: it puts the responsability entirely to the mothers, not to circumstances gouvernment really could do something about by creating more opportunity)
the failure here is that the producers of this advertisement fail to recognize that it's not they're tits they're talking about, so they need to lay the fuck off.
From what I remember reading, the research that they did before the campaign showed that people thought breastfeeding was "best" but not really necessary, kind of like eating the optimal foods 100% of the time, and who does that? People were surprised to learn that formula has health risks, like more ear infections, diarrhea, respiratory infections, etc.
People agreed with statements like "breastfed babies are usually healthier" but disagreed with "formula fed babies are usually sicker," so they decided that the risk-based language would help people realize that breastfeeding is just normal, and not breastfeeding is what causes health risks.
I do think it is terrible how much pressure and how little support is given to mothers, not just with feeding, but with every part of motherhood! People really act like you have 100% total control over your kids, and if they are "acting up," it is your fault. But I think public health campaigns are really important for educating people. I just wish they would put their money (and maternity leave, health care $, etc) where their mouth is. MOthers can't do everything alone.
And another thing, I take "health risks" all the time with my kids, like driving a car, eating at McDonalds, letting them climb trees, etc., so I think that mothers should not be expected to be perfect and make perfect decisions all the time. Sometimes real life interferes, and in some cases that means formula feeding instead of breastfeeding.
I don't feel like I need to be shielded from knowing that eating at McDonalds is not the healthiest choice; I can handle that and still feel comfortable about my overall raising of my kids. I think we need to let some of this stuff roll off our backs.
I'm not a mother, and I don;t know what I'll do, but I say like anything else in life you should do what suits you best, and no-one else has the right to judge that.
That said, I do know a fourth grade teacher who had a boy student who's mother was continually coming to the school to bring her 10 year old his "lunch"... the teachers eventually discovered she was breast-feeding the fourth-grader behind the toilet block every lunchtime. Nobody knew whether to report her for child abuse or not. IMHO breast feeding a ten year old is beyond the point of ridiculous, and probably warped the boy's future image of women.
Oops, I was the first commenter and in my haste to post I forgot to leave my details.
Anyway, what bothers me about this whole discussion is that there seems to be such a backlash against breastfeeding of late. I see it on infertility blogs especially. It rankles me to hear breastfeeding advocates called boob nazis. The reason why breastfeeding organizations exist, and the reason why doctors advocate breastfeeding, is simply that it is a nutritionally superior form of feeding your baby and these groups are trying to get the word out. I have heard anecdotes about nosy La Leche League members accosting pregnant women in public places and interrogating them about their plans for feeding their babies, but honestly, is this all that common? I think rare instances like these are presented as justification for characterizing breastfeeding advocates as militant extremists who want to make mothers feel guilty about their choices.
This is why this commercial bothers me: I think it only adds fuel to the fire of those who would characterize women in this way. It's a straw man argument, easy to knock down.
Hi,
I suppose the thing (one of several) that bothers me is the lack of logic in the ad. (Well, first, if it's meant to reach a less informed population about the benefits of breastmilk, how about including some actual information?) It's comparing apples and oranges. Health benefits of breastmilk aside, the more accurate comparison to "riding a bull while heavily pregnant" isn't "formula feeding." It would be more like...oh, I don't know, "dropping your baby from a second floor balcony." One will squish the baby beyond repair. The other just won't, even if it's not the absolute best choice. It's better than no food. It's better than being so miserable that you can't face the thought of the next feeding, or cringe every time the baby begins to cry. It's better than being forced to quit the job that you need to put the roof over the baby's head in the first place.
Breastmilk may be demonstrably better (and data show this, even though we all have other anecdotal evidence - myself included, having been formula fed AND started on solids in my first month thanks to an overworked undertrained military doctor), but the baby on formula will still be OK. The baby tossed off the mechanical bull will not. The comparison is bad logic, and thus unduly harsh, and thus really bad advertising. Scholars of rhetoric would say that this is ad is built on a "false contrary" or "false binary." The opposite of "hot" is not "cold". It's "not hot." There is more than one other choice (warm, cool, tepid, blah blah.) Likewise, as wonderful and as beneficial as breastfeeding is (and we fought through months of very painful resistant thrush in order to keep going) the opposite of "breastfed" is not "doomed."
Hi,
I suppose the thing (one of several) that bothers me is the lack of logic in the ad. (Well, first, if it's meant to reach a less informed population about the benefits of breastmilk, how about including some actual information?) It's comparing apples and oranges. Health benefits of breastmilk aside, the more accurate comparison to "riding a bull while heavily pregnant" isn't "formula feeding." It would be more like...oh, I don't know, "dropping your baby from a second floor balcony." One will squish the baby beyond repair. The other just won't, even if it's not the absolute best choice. It's better than no food. It's better than being so miserable that you can't face the thought of the next feeding, or cringe every time the baby begins to cry. It's better than being forced to quit the job that you need to put the roof over the baby's head in the first place.
Breastmilk may be demonstrably better (and data show this, even though we all have other anecdotal evidence - myself included, having been formula fed AND started on solids in my first month thanks to an overworked undertrained military doctor), but the baby on formula will still be OK. The baby tossed off the mechanical bull will not. The comparison is bad logic, and thus unduly harsh, and thus really bad advertising. Scholars of rhetoric would say that this is ad is built on a "false contrary" or "false binary." The opposite of "hot" is not "cold". It's "not hot." There is more than one other choice (warm, cool, tepid, blah blah.) Likewise, as wonderful and as beneficial as breastfeeding is (and we fought through months of very painful resistant thrush in order to keep going) the opposite of "breastfed" is not "doomed."
I would have loved to breastfeed. I still would give just about anything to do so. I was unable to give my boys that gift seeing as how we ADOPTED them. They are both extremely healthy with very low occurrences of ear infections (two total), no asthma/allergies issues, and diarrhea about as frequently as (I assume) other children. So, not only do I now feel wistful for an experience I'll never have with my children but I also feel guilty (thanks Father Jim) for not giving them this boost so needed during their first six months... and I'll be reminded frequently by a commercial. Niiiiiiice.
Really, Laura? Even though it wasn't your job to breastfeed them? Wow.
Too bad cancer ripped out half my mammary ducts at the age of 21. I thought *cancer* was the mechanical bull in my life...silly me.
I'm glad to be alive. Anyone who wants to tell me what a bad mom I'll be for not breastfeeding (assuming I can ever get pregnant) is free to see the scars that circle my breasts and the crazy way my nipples point different directions. We'll talk after that.
Oh, and FWIW, I was ALLERGIC to my mother's breast milk. I was formula fed almost from the start and I think I've done just fine for myself.
Wow, that is just stupid. In canada we had an ad campaign that was just great. We could see the bare cheast of a woman ( well that would not work in the us that is for sure) and it said explained that breast milk was good. No feeling guilty, no pressure.
I plan to breastfeed this baby but it's because I am a single mom and way to cheap to buy formula. My other son was breastfed for 3 months and I just got fed up with the boobies duties...but I was just 25 and had no support from the daddy....and breastfeeding was easy for me!!! I can't imagine what it is whene you have bleading nipples or the baby won't latch properly.
Anyway I think that any mom that can raise a balanced human ( or not requiering more than 3 session with the psy a week ) should have a medal for a job well done...period.