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| I am so making this "boobie beanie" for my baby. |
This advocacy group is admirable in many ways. I share many of its rants against pharmaceutical companies and their powerful lobbies in Washington, D.C.
But one of its recent efforts -- to stop hospitals from distributing free infant formula to new mothers -- is rubbing me in a way no nipple cream can help.
Public Citizen: Call to action
News report: MSNBC
I hate marketing. When I sat through my first educational session at my OBGYN, the nurse was surprised I didn't add my email address to the promotions list when she handed one more piece of paper to sign. "They send really good coupons," she said, to which I replied that I had enough crap in my inbox on any given day.
I will buy the products I need and want, and I will do my best to do so when they are on sale. Most of the coupons and promotions are for magazines and toys and other junk no one in my family will miss.
The rest of the "educational" material was decent enough, although I was informed enough on my own to already have decided to breastfeed once the little mouth makes his debut.
If my hospital happens to give me some free formula after I deliver, I will take it. I have three options of what I will do with it:
1) Store it in the cupboard for an emergency supply, in case my actual breasts become unavailable or if the freezer takes one of its frequent dumps and ruins any stored milk;
2) Give it to another mother I may know who is using that brand of formula; or
3) Donate it to a food pantry.
Public Citizen claims birthing centers should be free of marketing and that the formula give-away discourages breastfeeding.
Yeah, I can see that. There I am, all dopey from my epidural, just waiting for one little can of powdered nutrition to change my mind on one of the most important decisions I've been considering my entire pregnancy. I wouldn't put it past Sherwin Williams to put a color chip card in the goody bag to convince me to paint the nursery a different color that very evening.
If there is a mother in some delivery room somewhere who has such little resources or planning that she has nothing else to feed her baby than the first can of formula she gets for free from the hospital, the lack of a freebie isn't going to be what forces her to breastfeed.
Hospitals do recommend mothers let their little monsters latch onto them for at least six months, touting endless benefits to boob-giver and boob-taker alike. I wonder if Public Citizen would complain about marketing influences if the take-home swag included a free box of bra pads. How about a lottery ticket for a breast pump? Not so high and mighty now, are ya?
The reason only 14 percent of us moms are exclusively breastfeeding up to month 6 is because every other marketing effort in this country "has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy sh*t we don't need." So sayeth Tyler Durden in "Fight Club."
"SAHM" is all the rage, but not all of us can be that. If it's not our actual careers, callings and contributions to society motivating us to work for a paycheck, it's credit card debt and health insurance premiums and putting food on the table for everyone else. Breastfeeding is a serious commitment for moms working apart from their little bottomless pits consuming the yield.
Pumping and storing milk while you're at work is a pain in the ass, let alone the breasts. At my last newspaper, a friend and coworker had to do it in a wall-carpeted room we used for audio recording. Can you think of any place an employee at Burger King might be able to pump milk with dignity and adherence to health codes?
Very little in our society truly supports breastfeeding mothers. Doing it in public is hardly acceptable, and don't think for one second that someone won't complain if you whip out your baby's natural meal at a restaurant.
Encouraging breastfeeding is noble, but targeting the breastfeeders is misplaced. Taking freebies away from women who have decided -- for their own reasons, medical issues, schedules and conveniences -- to feed formula to their infants is just mean.
Instead, how about the following:
Run full-page ads inside porno magazines and on racy websites that urge men who are staring at titties all day long anyway to grow up and stop laughing if they see a woman's breast mid-feeding.
Most mosques have a basket of saris or other wraps for visitors to cover their legs and heads. How about a basket of those lovely breastfeeding bibs/tents at restaurants or libraries or other public places moms may be when junior squalls to be fed?
Circulate a petition to encourage workplaces to designate private pumping areas. Or better yet, LONGER PAID MATERNITY LEAVE.
Hey, you said you wanted my boy to be healthy and well-fed. Put your money where your mouth is.
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