Bring out your boobs
It's National Breastfeeding Week in Ireland, and once again I'm shocked by the statistics. Reading this article in the Irish Times, the basic takeaway is this part:
Just over half of mothers currently initiate breastfeeding in Ireland compared with 81 per cent in the UK and in the region of 98 per cent in Nordic states such as Sweden, Norway and Denmark.What's going on? Are Irish maternity practices that different from those of the UK? (Yes, I think they are.) But according to the finding cited later, that after a month, "women who gave birth in hospitals where there is a particular breastfeeding culture are no more likely to breastfeed than other women," that's not really where the problem lies.*
I think it's entirely about peer pressure. You do what your friends do. You don't want to be the weird one. You assume that what's "normal" is the most "right". The Irish psyche is also deeply suspicious of things that authority figures tell us to do. We're a lot more likely to listen to our friends than the experts or the media, at least when it comes to deciding how we're going to behave. We have a healthy scorn for experts.
In the comments on that article, several people mentioned that Irish mothers want to get back to the pub. They don't want to be tied to an infant, and they don't want to have to moderate their alcohol intake for an indefinite length of time. The idea of six more months without a pint or a (good) few glasses of red, after a whole nine months of self-denial already, is horrendous to your average Irish mother. Is that really true? Is it because the Irish doctors take the more USA-ian approach of no alcohol at all while pregnant or nursing rather than a Continental attitude of a little is fine? Or do Irish doctors know that "a little" is not an option once an Irishwoman goes out drinking?
On balance, I'd like to think this isn't true. The Scandinavian nations where breastfeeding rates are highest are not exactly known for their abstinence from hard liquor. The Swedes party hard, I'm told. But they are probably able to exercise a modicum of self-control too, and I imagine if the breastfeeding culture in Ireland was more like that in Sweden, Irish mothers would find that they could, let's see
- have one drink and stop
- have a few drinks once in a while and offer formula that evening instead
- pump enough to have a backup stash in the fridge for the babysitter to offer while you're out on the batter, and for you to give while you're still a little worse for wear once you get home
- discover that it's no fun trying to care for an infant when you have a hangover, and realise that moderation might be a good thing
Yes, yes, there are many people who really really wanted to breastfeed, and it didn't work out. I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about the almost 50% who decided beforehand that they weren't even going to think about it, because it's weird. Or because it's not what anyone they know does.
If nobody ever does, then nobody ever will. Simple as that. Are we all sheep, Irishwomen? I'd like to think not. Don't just do what your friends are doing. Find out for yourself. Remember, in the immortal words of L'Oreal, you're worth it. And so is your baby.
Mind the Baby has some words to say about the week here. Coincidentally, since she talks about the PR campaign, my own post linked at the top of the page described my imaginary advertising campaign aimed at the Irish market. Perhaps we should add one that just says, "Why breastfeed? So your friends will too." Maybe it's just that simple.
*Although higher rates of intervention are statistically linked with lower rates of initiating breastfeeding, so it does have something to do with it.
Labels: breastfeeding, ex-pat, Ireland, lactivism, newborns
posted by Maud @ 8:35 PM
13 Comments
Links to this post
13 Comments:
I think you are spot on about it being about peer pressure. When I lived in Cork, I even found LLL meetings depressing because almost 100% of the pregnant women there were convinced they wouldn't be "able" to breastfeed, as no one they knew had been able. And even the Mums who were nursing seemed to always be complaining about peer pressure from grannies and aunties to stop. I was abused by other mothers at playgroups to stop nursing my two year old until I finally stopped nursing him in public almost entirely as he was starting to notice the negative attention.
A think a big part of the problem is the terrible advice so many women seemed to get in hospital from doctors and even lactation consultants - such as have a rest first and don't worry about trying to breastfeed until you've had a few good sleeps after the birth. And so many stories of women being woken up by fierce hospital nurses to have a sleeping baby roughly stuffed on their breast. No wonder everyone fails. And I am at such a loss as to how to fix it. How do you change an entire culture's beliefs that their breasts are defective?
Even here in the UK, where all the midwives and hospitals I have spoken to are over the top pro-breastfeeding, the rates of continuing to breastfeed for any reasonable length of time are miserable.
Sometimes I wonder if it is a semantics thing. Because they use the word "weaning" here to mean starting solids, but lots of international health bodies use it to mean the complete cessation of breastfeeding, women just equate the two and at six months when they start the baby mush, they drink the Cow and Gate follow-on milk kool-aid and that is the end. Depressing stuff.
I had a look at the research presented by the ESRI breastfeeding conference that the article is based on and there are so really stark realities in there. For example, one of the main reasons that Ireland's breastfeeding rates have increased in the last few years is due to the influx of eastern European women bringing up our stats. But the really scary thing is that the long foreign national women have lived in Ireland, the less likely they are to breastfeed. So in affect not only are Irish women significantly less likely to breastfeed than other countries, we're bringing everyone else down with us too.
The two biggest factors in breastfeeding take up are the age of the mother and socio-economic factors. So the older you are and the more money you have (and by default higher level of education) the more likely you are to breastfeed. Essentially, to create real change, we're talking about implementing a massive, grassroots initiative in the community to educate and get buy in from girls and women of lower economic classes. No mean feat. That's a long term, resource intensive, expensive project. I think if the economic metrics were worked through though it would actually be beneficial to the economy in the long run to do this. Sorry for being cold and calculating by talking about economics but economics calls all the shots at the moment. A higher rate of breastfeeding would have a direct impact on the health bill of the State, particularly in light of the fact of the obesity landslide that's being predictive in the near future.
Although here I am trying to convince the Government of a country that produces 15% of the world's baby formula...sorry that's very cynical.
The same ESRI research has proved that both of Ireland's breastfeeding policy had absolutely no impact whatsoever. Rates went up despite them not because of them. Time for a new policy! We can do it, I think, it just needs to be done right.
Good morning!
Sorry for the appalling typos in that last post. I haven't had my coffee yet :)
Last comment I swear! You know Maud, I think your PR campaign might just work. I know a number of women who have had babies or who are having babies who have said to me that I and other breastfeeding friends are their "inspiration".
Very slowly, catchy monkey...
So who do we know at the ESRI? Can you take the campaign to them? Your graphics and my copy? ... maybe I need to talk to my bro-in-law the bigshot ad maker...
We produce 15% of the world's baby formula? I had no idea. Well, mystery solved, then.
V. interesting point about the semantics. I hadn't even thought about it until I started writing the post at http://awfullychipper.blogspot.com/2012/05/post-called-weaning.html, (first couple of paras). But so likely.
My POV was that I'd got this far, why stop now when it was getting good? And why spend all that money now that I knew I didn't have to. But for mothers who are going back to work at 6 months, it would all dovetail nicely.
Still, 6 months is a heck of a lot better than 0 months. I'm most concerned about all the Irish women who never even start.
Unfortunately they're just the researchers who analysis the policy and make recommendations that nobody does anything about! It's the HSE we're after. I'll get on the case...
Oh listen, we're so impressed with ourselves we stick it in international marketing campaigns...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA6iBKc0O0E
7 billion people. That's a lot of formula.
Having just had my second baby and spent 4 days in a "breastfeeding friendly" hospital.., I could write all day on this topic. I would be stunned and surprised if the reason Irish women are so bad at breast feeding had anything to do with wanting to be back on the piss. I think certainly there is an element of what are your peers doing - which in turn as Miranda says, is affected by the fact that many of our mothers are of an age where they didn't do it and are not particularly supportive of it. Junior doctors on their first paediatric rotation are also not particularly helpful. In response to my baby being slightly jaundiced, I was told to express 30 mls of colostrum at each feed and give that to him to top him up....!??? There is an obsession in hospital with weight and millilitres taken at each feed. There seems to be a very low threshold for intervening with for example jaundice and recommending "top ups". One paediatrician told me that in her native Hungary "ve never use formula" but that things were different in Ireland. The public health nurse said she was depressed at the amount of women coming out of hospital after being told to "top up" their babies with formula. ON the plus side, a breast feeding information session with the hospital's lactation midwife was absolutely jammed with mothers - mostly first time - all really determined and wanting to breast feed but all getting disillusioned after being told different things by different staff members. Practially all the midwives were very pro breast feeding and well informed (much much more so than 4 years ago)but also aware of the over medicalised nature of the advice they had to dispense..... Miranda is also right re being "able" to breastfeed.... I am having to top up as the baby has to have another weight check on Friday. I am following the advice of the one sane dr I met and using my common sense and keeping the formula to a bare minimum but I am having to really fight the feeling that there is "obviously" something wrong with my breasts and of course they are never going to be able to make enough milk and this breast feeding thing is just not going to work.... Yes there are the few women who feel the whole thing is somehow disgusting and never even try. But my experience both times is that most women know how important it is and are really set on doing it but their confidence is destroyed by just a few days in the Irish health system.... Also, I think, no one tells you how hard it is! Last time I thought the baby feeding like a mad thing for hours at night was a sign that it was going wrong. At least now I know that the night feeding makes you produce milk and is necessary so I can see it as a necessary evil! Anyway, sorry for the hormonal incoherence of this post but the whole breast feeding thing in Irish hospitals is completely and utterly fecked up.
I'm so sorry to hear how bad it really is. You have to take my opinions with a pinch of salt, obviously, since I haven't had direct experience with the Irish baby-having machine.
I had the same experience with a jaundiced baby and being told to supplement in the first week of my first baby's life. I refused to give up on the breastfeeding and let my husband give him every second feed from the formula for a couple of days, but soon the yellowness faded and I dropped the formula like a hot potato. In retrospect, possibly the reason it took five days for my milk to come in was that I wasn't feeding him as often as I should have been. But when you've never done it before, you're at the mercy of the so-called experts, aren't you? I'm so glad I persevered, but God yes, it was hard.
I think the main reason the Scandinavians have high breastfeeding rates is because they're more comfortable with nudity than we are. Women here are taught to cover their breasts except for sexual purposes. Its hard to let go of that mentality, for both ourselves and the people around us.
Good luck, anonymous! I am sure you have lovely breasts that are completely capable of nourishing your baby. Remember, you are a mammal first and Irish second!
Post a Comment
Say something!
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home