I ran across the above meme on Facebook and it appears to be credited to a Lactation University. The meme is an example of breastmilk advocacy not breastfeeding advocacy. The use of a breast pump bottle is emblematic of the current direction of infant feeding.
We are to believe that, "breastmilk has everything your baby needs." Everything? I believe that breastfeeding has everything that your baby needs. Something is seriously wrong with the thinking that a product is what babies need. Babies need their mothers: their warmth, their touch, their smell,their voice. It is mammalian survival of the next generation. The primal need of the newborn is to seek the breast. We have seen the videos of newly born babies crawling to the breast (based on Dr. Lennart Righard's research). This biological drive is circumvented and suppressed in many medical facilities by separation of mothers and babies.
The baby bottle is a symbol of mother-baby separation. Our society promotes this separation, and mothers buy into it even though they may feel torn apart mentally and physically. It appears to me that we hold the bottle in more esteem than the breast. If we want a accurate comparison of infant formula versus breastmilk, the container for breastmilk is the breast.
I am somewhat fascinated by the actual drawing of this meme. The infant formula bottle appears to me to be larger than the breastmilk pump bottle. The infant formula bottle is taller and wider than the breastmilk pump bottle. Our eyes are drawn to the infant formula bottle. The infant formula bottle does not show that formulas now include human milk components (usually genetically engineered) based on breastfeeding research: DHA/ARA oils, various probiotic bacteria, human lactoferrin and Human Milk Oligosaccharides. The water that is in breastmilk is produced through metabolism (glucose +oxygen). Water is 87.5% of human milk volume (Breastfeeding and Human Lactation 2nd edition-Riordan and Auerbach, 1999. pg.134). This is very different from the water that is added to infant formula by the infant formula industry and/or parents. In fact part of the concerns about infant formula is that many public water systems are contaminated with various toxic chemicals like PFAS chemicals. Too much water from outside sources can cause water intoxication (which can be deadly) in babies. Thus parents who use infant formula must use care in measuring ingredients if they are using powder or liquid concentrate. The breastfeeding infant needs no extra water, not even in very hot climates.
Are the ingredients in baby formulas equivalent to breastmilk? Those ingredients must be able to have a shelf life of about 18 months. Infant formula must be a sterile (without life) substance.**(please scroll down for a correction made 9/11/2021) Breastfeeding provides an infant with a live substance. Breastmilk in many cases will be frozen and reheated by mothers or pasteurized at donor milk banks. Or if breastmilk is given/sold to for-profit biotech companies, it becomes a substance more like infant formula than what is produced by the breast. The for-profit company take breastmilk apart for its components, add or subtract the fats, defrost it, freeze it, defrost it again, freeze it again, add Martek oils (DHA/ARA oils which are genetically engineered) add other vitamins and minerals.
The promotion of breastmilk rather than breastfeeding benefits a number of companies. It may have not been the intent of the designer of this meme, but the bottle is obviously a breastpump bottle. There is a belief system underlying this meme that bothers me. It bothers me that other breastfeeding advocates seem enthusiastic about such memes. I feel like we are going backwards. Is the only way to get women interested in breastfeeding is to promote breastmilk and pumping? Shouldn't we be promoting breastfeeding? Which means we need to also promote legislative protections for moms to not be separated from their babies. Family leave for moms should not be some farfetched dream. Other countries pay moms to stay home, if they want. Why can't we do this? I have seen the health ramifications for moms going back to employment at 2 weeks postpartum. Moms who had c-sections (major surgery plus caring for a newborn) who felt that they would lose their jobs, if they went back later than 2 weeks.. Instead they endure physical problems, and end up quitting breastfeeding because they are exhausted. They don't complain, but there is the element of depression. Somehow the joy of motherhood becomes a long to-do list that never ends.
I think the above meme was an educational tool for future IBCLCs. But I see it as the direction of breastfeeding advocacy. Like the infant formula industry, breastmilk advocacy seems to believe that women won't or can't breastfeed. Won't or can't breastfeed, is a ramification of lack of real support. Won't or can't breastfeed, is a society's lack of vision, driven by the ideology of products can replace relationships.
Copyright 2021 Valerie W. McClain
**This is an important correction. While infant formula must be made sterile, manufacturers of infant formula cannot make powdered infant formula sterile. Due to cases of Cronobacter and Salmonella in young infants causing hospitalizations and deaths, the recommendation from the WHO and the US CDC is that parents need to sterilize all feeding equipment and that water used to reconstitute the powdered formula should be at least 158F/70C degrees to inactivate pathogens. CDC guidelines on preparing powdered infant formula.
https://www.cdc.gov/cronobacter/infection-and-infants.html
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