On a more serious note, last week I completed a paper which I'm quite proud of. It's about the importance of promoting breastfeeding in underdeveloped countries and the way in which companies who manufacture breastmilk substitutes (like Nestle) are undermining breastfeeding education through manipulative marketing strategies. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.5 million infant deaths could be prevented per year if mothers followed simple guidelines about breastfeeding. I'd be happy to send you a copy of the paper if you're interested. I'm currently doing research on the rate of cesarean births in the US compared to the other countries, and what needs to be done to lower the rate (I wonder where I got this interest?) I'd love to hear your comments.
4 comments:
I remember that Nestle case from an anthropology class I had as an undergrad. Sad stuff. My wife was able to breastfeed our daughter for the first year and Samantha was not sick one day durring that time.
I don't doubt in any way that breastfeeding is best. My 2 girls were both breastfed and were in great health. In fact when all the cousins (they're in a lot of contact with each other) came down with the chicken pox my youngest daughter, who was still being breastfed a the time, got one pock vs a whole body full like the others.
1st world medicine in North America has seemed to go through fads over the years:
My older sister was born with my mother TIED to the bed flat on her back for over 18 hours!
My older brother was born at home (go figure...must have been subconscious given her first experience) but the nurses and doctors insisted that she bottle feed him, NOT because it was "better" milk but simply because you could better measure that the baby was drinking enough! I can't say I know much about the marketing of baby formula but back in the day when formula and pablum were the latest and greatest the calcium content came in the form of ground bone meal...ick...
Too many C-sections? At work, out of a workgroup of 8, 5 of us had children in the last year. 4 of those 5 were C-Sections! Apparently everyone nowadays is considered "high risk" so they just schedule a day in the OR and everyone sleeps easy. While these women were completely unable to get around and take care of their families for several weeks and not back to full strength for months my wife was up at running around the hospital. I've also heard that children, after a vaginal birth, have been statistically shown to be less prone to suicide. Maybe this first stressful event in their makes them mentally tougher. So, please remind me some of those benefits of a c-section again?
Thanks for your comments. Hey Kris, where did you hear the connection between vaginal births and lower suicide rates?
Wow Dave. A subject that is very close to my heart. I was a La Leche League leader for many years when the boys were younger. FYI, La Leche League is a breastfeeding mothers support group. I studied for about 3 years and had a lengthy application process before I was accepted as a leader. I joined La Leche League when I was about 6 months pregnant with Chris and finally closed the group I was in when Andrew was about 3 years old. Needless to say, I think "Breast is best" and all my boys were breastfed. It wasn't only a way of feeding them, it is also very special way of parenting them. I can recommend lots of great books on the subject and on other childbirth issues if you like.
Post a Comment