The penny finally dropped

It was because men couldn't do it, that's why bottle feeding was pushed so hard in the fifties and sixties.  Thanks to the likes of Dr. Spock and his cronies in the male-dominated medical and formula companies, the powdered variety was the answer.

This obvious reality finally dawned on me this morning as I was reading yet another article on the vast benefits of breastfeeding.  "Why hadn't they figured this out decades ago," I wondered.  But back then it was "Father Knows Best" all 'round-for-everything-everywhere so breast milk was scorned.  Every one of my mother's friends bottle-fed and looked down on the "primitive" and suspisciously "dirty" practice of breastfeeding.  When I had my own children in the late seventies, I desperately wanted to breastfeed, but my mother -- because she didn't know any better -- kept insisting that I go the bottle route.

Sitting crying along with my first-born at midnight one night, trying to figure it all out before I gave in and actually dug out one of the bottles and formula the hospital had given me, I called the La Leche League's number.  Surprisingly, a very kind young woman answered.  She talked me through it and the mysteries began finally to click into place.  What a wonderful relief!

The La Leche League has been around forever, consistently encouraging and helping women learn how to breastfeed.  Basics such as feeding on demand and not worrying if the baby is getting enough, as long as the poops are regular and plentiful.  They held rotating gatherings in young mothers' homes so we could all learn from each other and share what was working and what wasn't.  One thing I learned was that it is extremely rare for a mother to not be able to produce enough milk.  The whole thing operates on the perfection of "supply and demand".  If the baby suckles, the milk gets produced.  I suspect those mothers who claim to not have enough are trying to keep to a schedule, hence not enough suckling for proper production.  I have to bite my tongue when I overhear a young mother say that, as she gives the kid a bottle.

"You have to switch this baby to a bottle," said a young doctor when he weighed him at about two months.  I was shocked because this guy was around my age.  Weren't they starting to realize that breastfeeding was best?  Guess not.  I promptly went home and sent the know-it-all a bunch of pamphlets from La Leche, telling him that all babies had different weights and that as long as pooping was normal and the kid was healthy, everything was fine.  Didn't hear back.

Back then doctors didn't learn about breastfeeding because it wasn't a disease.  That, coupled with the money the industry would have been giving hospitals, meant that formula ruled.  Today those companies are back at it, adding probiotics and other ingredients to formula and advertising the products as "as good as breast milk."  Except they ain't by a long shot.

Thankfully, the medical profession has finally caught on and is now fighting back.