Breastfeeding mothers seen as less competent: Study

[tooblue]

http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/...008/story.html

Breastfeeding might be better for babies, but it might be murder on Mom's career.

New research from Montana State University, published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, suggest people hold lower opinions of women who breastfeed.

The researchers conducted three experiments. In one, subjects rated actress Brooke Shields as less competent — but warmer and friendlier — when given biographical information saying she breastfed, rather than bottle-fed, her children.

[MarkGrace]

Breastfeeding creeps me out. So does pregnancy. I'm going to have to get over this at some point.

[DU Ute]

We need a new sub-forum for breast related threads.

[Goatnapper'96]

We need a new sub-forum for breast related threads.

It took you Four Thousand One Hundred and Sixteen efforts but you finally got a good post!

It should be Goat's Lair!

[DU Ute]

It took you Four Thousand One Hundred and Sixteen efforts but you finally got a good post!

It should be Goat's Lair!

Goat's Motorboats

[marsupial]

Pitman suggested that having more breastfeeding done in the open could help reduce anxieties people have about it.


"I think it is helpful for people to see more women breastfeeding, to be more exposed to it so that it starts to just be normal," she said. "I think we're moving in that direction. You certainly see far more women breastfeeding in public than you did 20 years ago."

And this is one of the main reasons why I think women should breastfeed in public. The more of an every day, ordinary occurence it becomes, the more mothers will breastfeed. Keep sending them to a stinky, nasty public restrooms and yeah, they'll seem incompetent or as MG says, creepy.

[NorthwestUteFan]

Meh. We will beat some sense into the Boobcats of Montana State on September 1.

Who were the "subjects"? Were they Joe and Jane Everyman off the street, or were they 19 year-old college students on their own for the first time in the 'big' city of Bozeman? Why were they given only pictures of Brooke Shields? How many of them recall her discussion of her struggles with Post-Partum Depression, and did this skew their impression of her? Perhaps they recall Tom Cruise castigating her over her belief that psychotherapy helped her through a very rough time in her life (PPD), especially over her Paxil prescription?

Even Craig Killborn (MSU-Bozeman, Class of 84) would disagree with this report.

[NorthwestUteFan]

And this is one of the main reasons why I think women should breastfeed in public. The more of an every day, ordinary occurence it becomes, the more mothers will breastfeed. Keep sending them to a stinky, nasty public restrooms and yeah, they'll seem incompetent or as MG says, creepy.

This was made even more real to me after out twins were born. It is almost impossible to nurse two babies at the same time (our twins would refuse to eat if held to the side). As a result my wife was forced to feed one at a time, wherever we were.

In New England people were a bit more accepting of public breast feeding than in other places I have lived, but it still was a bit hard to maintain any level of privacy even with the coverup blankets. Taking a kid to the bathroom to feed him was so unsanitary that it was wrong in many levels. Add in the wicked cold climate to the relatively weak newborn immune systems, and it could have been downright deadly to force a kid to eat only in the bacterial cesspool of a public restroom.

[Mrs. Funk]

Breastfeeding's benefits to both moms and babies are too numerous for any thinking person to ignore. Perceived incompetency or no, if you can make breastfeeding work, it's really the way to go. I don't understand the backlash.

[marsupial]

Breastfeeding's benefits to both moms and babies are too numerous for any thinking person to ignore. Perceived incompetency or no, if you can make breastfeeding work, it's really the way to go. I don't understand the backlash.

:clap:

Love hearing this from a soon-to-be mom.

[Mrs. Funk]

:clap:

Love hearing this from a soon-to-be mom.

Hooray! Here's hoping everything goes (relatively) smoothly with the learning curve.

[Moliere]

Breast feeding was very normal in France. I was flashed once as a newbie while attending a FHE at a member's home. Only after the meeting did I realize the mom had warned us. Unfortunately the words "breast" and "lift up my shirt" were not part of the standard MTC curriculum.

[Solon]

Breast feeding was very normal in France. I was flashed once as a newbie while attending a FHE at a member's home. Only after the meeting did I realize the mom had warned us. Unfortunately the words "breast" and "lift up my shirt" were not part of the standard MTC curriculum.

I'm quite dismissive of breastfeeding mothers, since they're obviously too poor to afford wet nurses.

[Moliere]

I'm quite dismissive of breastfeeding mothers, since they're obviously too poor to afford wet nurses.

We should all be so lucky as to have our nurses wet.

MJ was a breast feeder and often in public. She always carried one of those covers that went around her neck but she would nurse in restaurants, parks, etc. Maybe it was my time in France but I really have no issues with breastfeeding in public.

[wuapinmon]

I think I'd rather have the babies breastfeeding in public than the moms.