Breastfeeding mothers seen as less competent: Study

[il Padrino Ute]

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

You've subconsciously come to the realization that they ain't for you once the li'l one arrives. Good for you. It'll be quicker for you to get over it.

[Mormon Red Death]

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.

ah yess.... the hooter hider

[KillerDog]

Frankly, I find the anti breast feeding crowd more than a little bit insane. What the hell did they think those things were for?

That said, I find some of the pro-breastfeeding crowd a little nutty too. I find it odd to see a 4 year old come up to his mom, partially undress her and start sucking on her nipple. I don't know why it seems odd ...

[Soccermom]

Frankly, I find the anti breast feeding crowd more than a little bit insane. What the hell did they think those things were for?

That said, I find some of the pro-breastfeeding crowd a little nutty too. I find it odd to see a 4 year old come up to his mom, partially undress her and start sucking on her nipple. I don't know why it seems odd ...

I agree. Take the extreme of either side, and they come across odd to me too.

I remember when my first son was born, I was working "somewhere" and though my child wasn't there, the fact that I would take a few breaks to use my breast pump seemed to bring out the dirty looks and disapproval. It really surprised me at first and annoyed me too.

Then, shortly after that, I had some complications that required me to take medicine and have a same day surgery that dried up my milk. I then got dirty looks from breastfeeding mothers in stores, in public places, at church, etc. when I would whip out the formula to feed my baby.

It kind of reminds me of the working mom/stay at home mom rivalry. I try not to question what feeding method other mothers choose for their babies. Everyone has different circumstances, and as long as a baby is cared for and loved, just butt out on both sides. My fellow La Leche League ward members certainly didn't help me out by telling me I hadn't done all I could do to keep my milk supply strong. They made me feel bad. I was crying in my OB's office asking him why the heck he couldn't have given me different meds or something. My OB told me to ignore the quacks, lol, and disregard any study that was trying to make a mom feel like she would hamper a child's intelligence or development if she formula fed him. After that, I held my head up high as I whipped out the formula. I was able to nurse my other 3 children and it was much easier for me to not have to prepare bottles, but I didn't always feel comfortable nursing in public. People would give looks. I guess my advice to moms is just ignore the looks and know that karma is a ____.

[KillerDog]

I agree. Take the extreme of either side, and they come across odd to me too.

I remember when my first son was born, I was working "somewhere" and though my child wasn't there, the fact that I would take a few breaks to use my breast pump seemed to bring out the dirty looks and disapproval. It really surprised me at first and annoyed me too.

Then, shortly after that, I had some complications that required me to take medicine and have a same day surgery that dried up my milk. I then got dirty looks from breastfeeding mothers in stores, in public places, at church, etc. when I would whip out the formula to feed my baby.

It kind of reminds me of the working mom/stay at home mom rivalry. I try not to question what feeding method other mothers choose for their babies. Everyone has different circumstances, and as long as a baby is cared for and loved, just butt out on both sides. My fellow La Leche League ward members certainly didn't help me out by telling me I hadn't done all I could do to keep my milk supply strong. They made me feel bad. I was crying in my OB's office asking him why the heck he couldn't have given me different meds or something. My OB told me to ignore the quacks, lol, and disregard any study that was trying to make a mom feel like she would hamper a child's intelligence or development if she formula fed him. After that, I held my head up high as I whipped out the formula. I was able to nurse my other 3 children and it was much easier for me to not have to prepare bottles, but I didn't always feel comfortable nursing in public. People would give looks. I guess my advice to moms is just ignore the looks and know that karma is a ____.

I have a friend whose wife is very, very, very into nursing. While she has a nursing baby, it is an all ecompassing issue and is more important than any other thing in her life (including other children and even the health of the nursing child). For example, after the third child was born, something wasn't working right with the nursing. This woman refused to feed the child anything but breast milk from her breast. The child was literally starving to death and the mother was going straight suicidal over the thought of not nursing. After 3 weeks the pediatrician called the state for neglect because th baby was so small and getting smaller. The mother has state ordered therapy but the baby is finally nursing like the mother wants so all is well and she is acting normally again. This pattern has gotten worse with each child. She's just too crazy and getting crazier.

At the same time, I have a mother in law who is anti-nursing. She thinks nursing is what animals do and educated women with prospects (read working mothers) shouldn't be like animals. She has effectively discouraged her daughters in law from nursing. Interestingly, my wife is her only daughter but they are cut from the same cloth in regards to stubbornness so I think the anti-nursing propaganda from her mother has made my wife a proponent of nursing.

[NorthwestUteFan]

sometimes the medical professionals are as bad. When our twins were born the peds decided for us that the babies were to be breastfed breast fed. We knew from experience that my wifes milk would take a few days to a week to come in. after a few days my wife was sore, tired, and frustrated and the twins were starving. We kept asking for formula, but they would give us the guilt trip. It will permanently change the lining of the gut, milk from mom is best, the UN has a program, etc.

The twins screamed all day every day, so my wife forced the nursery to take them. Next they sent in counselors to find out why she was neglecting her kids, etc.

In the end one baby had to stay a few extra days because his bilirubin count was too high. I almost threw the doc out the window over that.

[Mrs. Funk]

I agree. Take the extreme of either side, and they come across odd to me too.

I remember when my first son was born, I was working "somewhere" and though my child wasn't there, the fact that I would take a few breaks to use my breast pump seemed to bring out the dirty looks and disapproval. It really surprised me at first and annoyed me too.

Then, shortly after that, I had some complications that required me to take medicine and have a same day surgery that dried up my milk. I then got dirty looks from breastfeeding mothers in stores, in public places, at church, etc. when I would whip out the formula to feed my baby.

It kind of reminds me of the working mom/stay at home mom rivalry. I try not to question what feeding method other mothers choose for their babies. Everyone has different circumstances, and as long as a baby is cared for and loved, just butt out on both sides. My fellow La Leche League ward members certainly didn't help me out by telling me I hadn't done all I could do to keep my milk supply strong. They made me feel bad. I was crying in my OB's office asking him why the heck he couldn't have given me different meds or something. My OB told me to ignore the quacks, lol, and disregard any study that was trying to make a mom feel like she would hamper a child's intelligence or development if she formula fed him. After that, I held my head up high as I whipped out the formula. I was able to nurse my other 3 children and it was much easier for me to not have to prepare bottles, but I didn't always feel comfortable nursing in public. People would give looks. I guess my advice to moms is just ignore the looks and know that karma is a ____.

That any of this is happened to you is extremely unfortunate and unkind. As long as she's not actively hurting or neglecting her child, nobody should berate a mom for doing what works for her and her situation. Rarely do people passing judgment have the whole story, but that's not really the point. What happened to this whole, "Love thy neighbor as thyself" business?

I think it's equally sad that you got dirty looks for taking breaks to go pump AND that Le Leche Leaguers gave you a complex about your milk supply. Life happens, and the best planning can't counteract that.

And yes, karma is indeed a bitch.

[Paperback Writer]

I agree. Take the extreme of either side, and they come across odd to me too.

I remember when my first son was born, I was working "somewhere" and though my child wasn't there, the fact that I would take a few breaks to use my breast pump seemed to bring out the dirty looks and disapproval. It really surprised me at first and annoyed me too.

Then, shortly after that, I had some complications that required me to take medicine and have a same day surgery that dried up my milk. I then got dirty looks from breastfeeding mothers in stores, in public places, at church, etc. when I would whip out the formula to feed my baby.

It kind of reminds me of the working mom/stay at home mom rivalry. I try not to question what feeding method other mothers choose for their babies. Everyone has different circumstances, and as long as a baby is cared for and loved, just butt out on both sides. My fellow La Leche League ward members certainly didn't help me out by telling me I hadn't done all I could do to keep my milk supply strong. They made me feel bad. I was crying in my OB's office asking him why the heck he couldn't have given me different meds or something. My OB told me to ignore the quacks, lol, and disregard any study that was trying to make a mom feel like she would hamper a child's intelligence or development if she formula fed him. After that, I held my head up high as I whipped out the formula. I was able to nurse my other 3 children and it was much easier for me to not have to prepare bottles, but I didn't always feel comfortable nursing in public. People would give looks. I guess my advice to moms is just ignore the looks and know that karma is a ____.

I remember getting comments from other nursing mothers on the benefits of natural milk over formula and the insinuation that my working wife was short-changing our baby as I was bottle feeding him while theirs were all breast feeding. They assumed, since it was a man feeding a baby, that formula was in the bottle and not breast milk. I corrected them by mentioning that my wife pumps and that our baby is drinking breast milk. That started a lot of questions about pumps, feeding schedules, etc. For my wife and babies there was a lot of efficiency gains with using a pump. Babies would take their time while being nursed, and, according to their mother, just wanted a boob in their mouth sometimes more than they wanted to eat (they were boys). So a pump was a good solution as it took less time to pump then to nurse and the babies seem to get down to the business of eating more with a bottle so feeding took less time. Mom still nursed the kids before bedtime and had the flexibility to wake me up in the middle of the night for a feeding. It took less time for her to pump then it did for me to prepare a stored bottle, feed the baby, and get him back to sleep.

My buddies in the EQ were not happy once their wives started bringing up breast pumps and feeding schedules; especially when we loaned out the breast pump to one of them.

[UtahDan]

[Eddie]

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.

You just need to get all of the folks viewed as extremely competent by the public to breastfeed in public. Folks seem to like Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton - see if they can pull it off during a press conference.

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.

Near daily occurance in central america. Never by someone who a 19 year-old boy would hope to be the one flashing him, but there it was...

I have a friend whose wife is very, very, very into nursing. While she has a nursing baby, it is an all ecompassing issue and is more important than any other thing in her life (including other children and even the health of the nursing child). For example, after the third child was born, something wasn't working right with the nursing. This woman refused to feed the child anything but breast milk from her breast. The child was literally starving to death and the mother was going straight suicidal over the thought of not nursing. After 3 weeks the pediatrician called the state for neglect because th baby was so small and getting smaller. The mother has state ordered therapy but the baby is finally nursing like the mother wants so all is well and she is acting normally again. This pattern has gotten worse with each child. She's just too crazy and getting crazier.

At the same time, I have a mother in law who is anti-nursing. She thinks nursing is what animals do and educated women with prospects (read working mothers) shouldn't be like animals. She has effectively discouraged her daughters in law from nursing. Interestingly, my wife is her only daughter but they are cut from the same cloth in regards to stubbornness so I think the anti-nursing propaganda from her mother has made my wife a proponent of nursing.

Several years ago I had to go meet with a gal who was struggling to breastfeed her firstborn. She had a lower IQ, and was really struggling because she viewed it as overly sexual - which weirded her out.

They ended up going to formula, which beat having her not feed the kid at all.

We also got to talk about the fact that babies don't get to take asprin. Even if they are crying. The fact that a baby is crying doesn't necessarily mean it has a headache. And even if a baby did have a headache - babies don't get asprin. No, really, babies don't get asprin...