Moms Ignoring Breast-Feeding Advice (poorer moms buying formula, richer ones use free breast milk)

WAPT ^

[chance33_98]

Moms Ignoring Breast-Feeding Advice

By Randy Dotinga HealthScoutNews Reporter

July 9, 2002 5:37 PM

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FRIDAY, June 28 (HealthScoutNews) -- The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that mothers breast-feed their babies exclusively for the first six months of life. However, many women ignore the advice, and a new study finds that poor women are more likely turn to formula early than better-educated and richer women.

The findings may sound counterintuitive -- poor women are more likely to choose formula, even though it isn't free -- but they do accurately reflect trends of the last several decades, says Dr. Ruth A. Lawrence, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Rochester.

-----snip

Nearly half of women reported exclusively breast-feeding their babies during the first few months after birth, but 90 percent turned to other sources of food at six months.

Breast-feeding rates were especially low among black women and poor women. A study published last year in the journal Pediatrics found black women are much less likely to breast-feed than white women.

However, three groups of women were more likely to breast-feed exclusively in the first few months of the lives of their babies: those who graduated from college (82 percent), those from a family with a head of household who graduated from college (80 percent), and those with an income well above the poverty level (75 percent). However, even most of those women failed to continue breast-feeding exclusively until their babies were six months old.

-----snip The discrepancy "could be deeply rooted in a culture of belief that mothers cannot provide sufficient nutrition to their babies," she adds.

The popularity of breast-feeding has swung up and down since infant formula was introduced about 70 years ago, Lawrence says.

"The well-educated woman led the march to the bottle, and we saw the first beginning dips in breast-feeding," Lawrence says, as poorer women continued to breast-feed.

However, the situation reversed a few decades later, as the well-educated women began to learn about the benefits of breast-feeding. "They suddenly realized they'd made a mistake," she says. "They realized that [formula-feeding] wasn't the best thing, and they ought to be doing the best thing."

Poorer women, meanwhile, jumped on the formula bandwagon, she says. However, breast-feeding remains "perfect nutrition," she says. "It's specifically engineered for the human infant."

[chance33_98]

HMMMMMM I think I understand.

[RightOnline]

It takes effort and commitment on the part of the mother to nurse a baby. These women obviously are too lazy to do so. I know couples where the mother won't breast feed her baby because, by using formula, she can kick Dad out of bed during the middle of the night to feed the baby and she can sleep in.

I find that profoundly stupid and sad.

Our seven kids were ALL nursed, and beyond six months. Perfectly healthy. This article also fails to address the level of bonding that occurs between a mom and her baby when nursing.................

[freeper12]

MY wife is a nurse...the gimme girls that come in to the clinic for their free formula coupons ALWAYS complain that they can only get coupons for the powdered formula, and not get get the pre-mixed kind...not only are they getting it for free...they complain that it is too much work to add water themselves and want the more convienent (more expensive) pre-mix kind....at taxpayers expensive of course.

[chance33_98]

My daughter is 15 months and still breastfed, though she eats other food as well. She never ate baby food, did not like it. Wife is college grad (and now a stay at home mom), and I make good money - so i guess we fit well into their findings. My X and I, when i was much younger, did the opposite. She never went to college, I made very little money, and she never breast fed our 3 boys (even though I thought it was a good idea, not just for the money we would save). She basically wanted 'her time' and never really bonded well with any of the three (not saying moms can't that don't). I like my current wife so much better :)

[chance33_98]

My wife used to work in a clinic and told me very similar stories - makes me wonder what the heck is wrong with people. She taught WIC classes and such, and the stories she has to tell, just darn crazy!

[stlrocket]

And then there are women who have other feelings on how long to breast feed. Did you see the article earlier this week with the woman who is still allowing her 8 year old son to do it?

NEWS ARTICLE WITH PICTURE OF "MOM"

[I still care]

It is much less expensive to breast feed, but one of the issues the article does not address is that women who are poor may simply be unable to manage their time effectively to breast feed. I have lived wealthy AND poor and I know when you have no money sometimes just managing life gets beyond your control. I remember not being able to pay my bills on time so I had to drive around the day they were due to pay them in person. The upshot is, it is much easier to nurse when you are not working, than when you are working two jobs and your kid is in daycare. (A terrible situation, and yes, maybe they shouldn't have had the child in the first place but they do.)

When LaLeche league suggests pumping as an alternative you just want to scream - you don't have time to breathe sometimes, how do you find time to pump? And yes, many women are just selfish but my experience is often poor women are just totally overwhelmed with just getting through life day by day. That is why so many of them have kids, to give them some modicum of comfort and love, but they should really just get a cat.

[B4Ranch]

The article is WRONG! The difference is occuring between educated and uneducated women.

[chance33_98]

Thanks for the viewpoint, certainly worth considering. Especially the part about the cat :)

[krb]

my experience is often poor women are just totally overwhelmed with just getting through life day by day.

I think you are confusing the working poor (most of whom are destined to work their way into the middle class because that's how it used to work in our country) with the poor hand-out slobs who bitch and moan for their free formula coupons at WIC offices around the nation.

[TheFilter]

I think you have excellent points.

Most "poorer women" probably do work versus being wholly state-supported, and the sorts of jobs they have don't allow for a lot of time flexibility, as opposed to being, say someone who owns her own business and can take any time she needs to breast-feed.

[I still care]

Yes, I am thinking of those women who are trying to do it right. I am NOT thinking of the true uneducated deadbeats, perhaps drug addicted, who don't breastfeed because they simply are too preoccupied with themselves and their habits.

[Mr. Bird]

Your comments are spot on. One of my staff had a baby last year and was committed to breastfeeding. She and her husband are in a situation which her salary is important to the family's making ends meet. It is not gravy. Anyway, we work in an environment that fortunately can allow the flexibility required for pumping. Most are not that lucky.

[society-by-contract]

My daughter is five and a half months and my wife (and I) are beginning to wean and my spouse is *very* happy to decrease and soon eliminate breast feeding. Breastfeeding is difficult, especially if one has to work.

[GailA]

My daughter-in-law is in the under-educated low income catagory. She I guess tried to break the mold. She started out trying to breast feed our grandson. BUT due to RH factors between her and the baby (Matthew ended up with a blood transfusion to stop the bili-rueben count from going off the charts) had to quit breast feeding and switch to the forumla (which is 58% sugar). Matthew is now 8 1/2 months old and TO FAT for this granny's liking, but is now starting to slim down due to his starting to crawl.

[Marauder]

Nature provides some special benefits via breast-feeding that a lot of people either overlook or don't know about. The genetic link between the mother and child ensure that the milk is a good fit, and it's a source of essential fatty and amino acids that greatly enhance the child's ability to fight off infections, especially later in life.
I am the oldest of three brothers, whose father died of a heart attack at an early age. My youngest brother had to be formula-fed because my mother didn't lactate when he was born. He's the only one with heart problems now.

[valkyrieanne]

Poor women use formula because formula is paid for under the WIC program. You get more of what you subsidize. Unfortunately, if the state *didn't* provide formula subsidies, many of these children would probably not be fed at all. This is the rationale behind WIC, anyway.

[sonserae]

Did anyone consider that the rich women breast-feed because they can stay at home and do so while the poor women have to go back to work as housekeepers and aren't home to breast-feed. This would explain a lot.

[chance33_98]

It was probably a government funded study, which means they probably did not do a lot of thinking :)

[chance33_98]

PS - what is considered rich?