Sunday, August 29, 2010

Lactivist And Proud Of It

I saw a mother rather desperately reading the label of the store brand infant formula at the grocery store yesterday, trying to make sure she wouldn't be sacrificing quality for price.  She was being hassled at the same time by a teen who was probably her younger sister (or older child, but she didn't really look old enough to have a teenager).  The all-knowing teen was trying to talk the harried mother out of buying the cheap formula - "she's not going to drink that" and all.  I could see the mom stressing, so I stopped and told her that I had read that the store brand formulas were every bit as healthy as the name brand ones, which is true.  "Really?" she asked, lighting up with relief.  It's nice to be able to make people feel better in the course of a day's grocery shopping.


I am, by the way, the sort of breastfeeding activist that our formula-pushing culture likes to accuse of guilt-mongering just because I try to make our culture more breastfeeding-friendly and to make breastfeeding more possible for mothers who want to do it.  

For the record, while there are crazies in every camp, most lactivists don't want anyone to feel guilty - we just want everyone to get the support and acceptance they need.


Happy World Breastfeeding Month.

4 comments:

gojirama said...

You're wonderful!

Lone Star Ma said...

Thank you! You also are wonderful!

Saints and Spinners said...

I'm glad! You are wonderful. I've known mamas who have tried and tried to breastfeed (with lactation consultants on board, too) and their babies were in danger of failure to thrive without formula supplements.

Lone Star Ma said...

I will say that although there are a few rare cases where it is unavoidable due to insufficient breast tissue(usually after surgery), most cases like what you describe are management issues - often caused by bad hospital advice and clueless doctors and nurses. Even many lactation consultants are often less good at this than one would think they should be. I don't think anyone who doesn't want to nurse should be given any grief, so long as we live in a culture that promotes and supports nursing, but I do think it's a crying shame that so many women who want to nurse are so inadequately supported by medical professionals and our culture that they are not able to do so.