Breast is best?
Deconstructing the
messages we receive
and conclusions we
draw about
breastfeeding.
Breast is best. How many times do new
mothers get this phrase drilled into their
heads? It’s even fun to say, “breast is best,
breast is best”. It’s a fun little rhyme. It’s
also touted as a solid, indisputable fact, to
be said with absolute confidence, and often
with a tsk, tsk tone that you might hear from
your kindergarten teacher. “Sharing is
caring.” “Breast is best”. As new mothers,
this is one of the main pieces of advice we
hear from our medical professionals.
Although in previous generations
breastfeeding has been out of vogue, the
current research suggests that breastmilk is
the gold standard of infant food. The
subtext: breastfeed if you can, because it’s
the best possible choice for your baby.
Formula is simply not as good.
We all want what’s best for our kids. So how
does it feel when you can’t do what’s best? I
believed wholeheartedly in the breast is
best philosophy with my first baby, and it
almost harmed us both. I’m here to tell you
that breast is best is a set-up. And here’s
why.
The current research that is reported on
breastfeeding indicates a variety of benefits
to both baby and mother, including
immunological benefits for baby, improved
GI health, reduced risk for diabetes, and
reduced risk of breast cancer for mother.
Depending on the source, the complete list
of benefits from breastfeeding is much
longer, and breastfeeding has even been
touted as being associated with positive
outcomes later in life, such as greater
intelligence, more assertiveness, and less
psychological problems. The problem with
these conclusions about breastfeeding is
that the benefits are often overstated, while
limitations to the research are downplayed.
For example, no one has proven that
breastfeeding causes greater intelligence,
but rather the two seem to be positively
correlated. The relationship, if any, is very
likely far more complex than simply
breastfeeding your baby and having this
result in her getting a higher score on the
SAT. However, when moms are educated
about breastfeeding, the messages are not
this nuanced, and most moms simply hear
breastfeeding and higher IQ in the same
sentence and think, well of course I want
that for my baby!
Breastmilk, or “liquid gold” as it is often
referred to, is valued so much that even
when the breastmilk itself may no longer be
optimum or even safe (e.g. the milk has been
in the fridge for over five days, been out on
the counter for several hours, been reheated
several times), women are still tempted to
give it to their babies because the thought of
wasting it makes them cringe somewhere
deep inside in a way that is unexplainable to
anyone who has never sat at the
breastpump. Temptation to give the baby
potentially spoiled breastmilk is something
all breastfeeding mothers who pump their
milk can identify with, and there are many
that would say they would rather do that
than give the baby formula.
So here’s where the set-up comes in. With
the benefits of breastfeeding overstated,
women are unfairly manipulated into
believing that feeding their children formula
will deny them all of these benefits. Some
may argue that even if you only consider the
immunological properties of breastmilk,
which seem to have more solid scientific
backing than other claims, it is still as a
substance, by definition, superior to formula
and is therefore the best choice for infant
food.