The board where I initially posted this is very progressive (what an oasis in Colorado Springs!), so you might imagine I got some pushback about my first (short) post. In addition, I wasn’t clear enough in my first post that my black box comment was an *addition* to the commentary at Feministe, not the focal point of my concerns.

Here’s something posted by the first respondant — taken from womenshealth.gov:

For each woman, the decision to breastfeed or bottle-feed infant formula is a very personal decision based on many things, including personal or family experiences, whether or not you are going back to work, and whether your baby has special needs. After you weigh all the factors in your life that will affect your decision, remember that breastfeeding, for even a short amount of time, can benefit your baby, you, and your family. Although infant formula can provide babies with necessary nutrients, it can never duplicate the exact chemical makeup of human milk, especially human milk’s cells, hormones, and antibodies to fight disease.

However, there are women who have problems breastfeeding due to health conditions or other personal circumstances and need to feed their babies or supplement with infant formula. Infant formula is also the only safe way to provide nutrition to your baby after you have weaned, if your baby is under the age of one.

If you are going to use infant formula, you can ensure that you use a reputable brand that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). You can check the FDA web site for current information on infant formula in the United States, as well as any recalls due to health and safety problems.

Now that I re-read this (the actual government statement) and compare it to the message given by the ad campaign, it strikes me as similar to the recent kerfluffle about the Washington Post article about how women should act as if they’re “pre-pregnant” all the time. The actual CDC policy focuses heavily on enhancing women’s health (a Very Good Thing), but the WaPo article translated a positive policy into something to be used to control women’s decisions. In this case, it’s the government’s own ad campaign that’s changing the message, but the same idea applies…good policy, awful communication of said policy.

On to my next response:

(Board member), the quote you posted was wonderful — I agree with it entirely. Too bad the advertisements don’t follow the same spirit…

(Board member 2), I’d started writing a reply (and more thorough explanation of what bothers me about the article and campaign), but you’ve covered much of the ground for me — especially about the social message given that women belong solely in the home…or the bathroom…or wherever) I’ll pick up from there.

First, in defense of self. Lest anyone think otherwise, I’m very pro-breastfeeding. Breastmilk is, without a doubt, the best thing for a baby to eat, period. Women should be able to nurse wherever, whenever their babies are hungry, without shame and without a need to cover up. I personally tried to expose as little as possible, but that’s more about me, not anything I would ever want to impose on anyone else. Besides that, I’d nurse at my table while eating dinner on a Friday night in a crowded Colorado Springs chain restaurant! Keeping discrete about it helped *ME* to enjoy my dinner more. (a-hem…back to the subject) To sum up, breastfeeding=best. Okay?

To save anyone a trip back out to NYT or Feministe, I’ll sum up my concerns:

Framing the Argument
Rather than educating people that “breastfeeding=best” (beyond a short statement about a single benefit as an afterthought at the end of the advertisement), the campaign focuses on “formula=dangerous”. It’s a subtle difference, perhaps, but an important one. Instead of providing scads of information in an interesting way, they relied on alarmism and fear to control people about what *not* to do. Any behaviorist (or parent, or dog trainer, for that matter) can tell you that it’s a lot more effective to teach/train people what to do (positive action) rather than what not to do (inaction). In other words, a strong campaign would focus on advocacy of breastfeeding rather than demonization of people who bottlefeed (whether from “laziness” or giving up a struggle).

Treatment of the Target Audience
If the tone of the ads treated women like rational human beings, rather than as children who need to be told what to do, that would help. There’s an assumption that I see behind the ads of “We don’t need to bother to educate people. Let’s just scare the crap out of them and heap a pile of guilt on them.” It’s patronizing.

The Information (not) Delivered
From the NYT article: “Just like it’s risky to smoke during pregnancy, it’s risky not to breast-feed after”
Statements like this are irresponsible. Again, this isn’t because I think that infants don’t lose something if they get formula. They certainly do lose out, on a great deal. That said, the “risks” (better said, I believe as “lack of benefit”) faced are not something comparable with smoking while pregnant (or log rolling…or riding a mechanical bull). By making an extreme comparison, the campaign sets itself up for a fall. Formula is not as risky to a child as a high-trauma activity is to a pregnancy/fetus. I think that most women intuitively know this, and it makes the campaign frankly, easy to ignore as over-the-top. Why not just work with reality and promote the actual, proven benefits of breastfeeding? That might gain the campaign more credibility, and it wouldn’t risk looking like the “advertisement who cried wolf.”

Control and Choice
This is the biggest issue to me. Breastfeeding is best for a child, and if I have any more children, I’ll do whatever I can to (again) nurse for at least a year, ideally longer. But as strongly as I believe that nursing is the best choice for a child, I’m an even stronger believer in the importance of an individual’s right to make choices for herself. Do I think it’s sad that many don’t even consider nursing as an option? And immediately go to bottles without even *trying* to breastfeed? Of course, that’s sad. But that doesn’t mean that I will ever presume to tell someone else how to live their own life. Let me put it this way: given the choice between an unplanned pregnancy and abortion, I chose the unplanned pregnancy, which I believe was the best decision I’ve ever made — but it was MY decision for MY life. Even if I think a woman’s reasons for formula-feeding are bad ones, I will defend her right to do what she needs to do in her own life.

(This could easily open a new can of worms about whether or not formula truly is “dangerous.” As someone who wasn’t breastfed, I’d like to think that there isn’t something horribly defective about me because of it, but hey, maybe I’m dreaming.)

It’s good that there’s a campaign out there to advocate for breastfeeding. IMO, they’re going about it badly, and I’d like to see something that encourages nursing rather than bashing formula, and does so with accuracy. A campaign that focused on the strength and BEAUTY of nursing would have my vote in a heartbeat.

I joined this particular board shortly after Maya’s birth, but most of their activities were playdates at parks — not a great way to spend time if you have a newborn who doesn’t play like that yet! I came across another group (which I really love) who hosted a hike (now we’re talking!), and lagged participation in the first board. Recently, I “rediscovered” this site, and realized that I’ve missed out in a big way by not participating! It helps that I’m (finally) becoming more comfortable with the bulletin board (as opposed to email list) format — it doesn’t feel as overwhelming. I feel very lucky to have a group like this exist here. Believe it or not, I’m starting to find pockets of progressive thought — and even (gasp!) liberalism — throughout my conservagelical town.