Breastfeeding research = massive guilt?

What happens when new breastfeeding research findings are released?

Research findings from the Millennium Cohort Study that breastfed babies "develop fewer behaviour problems" have been met with the usual, predictable responses.

For those who have breastfed their children, it is a further addition to the overwhelming amount of research out there that they are doing A Good Thing.  But for those who didn't breastfeed, whether through choice or circumstance, it can be an extremely painful thing to hear.  Some dismiss it as "rubbish" or "propaganda" or "bullying" (all comments seen following this BBC piece on the story).  I've also seen it referred to as "another stick to beat us formula-feeders with".  I fully expect angry opinion pieces in the papers in the next couple of days, pulling the study apart.

I'm not going to delve through the finer points of this particular study, though I will say it was a well-conducted one with a large cohort.  But I would like to talk about the general effect the release of new breastfeeding research has.

 The guilt thing

Many of the articles already published about this, in common with other studies, include reminders about not making women who don't breastfeed feel guilty.  Janet Fyle, Professional Policy Adviser at the Royal College of Midwives is quoted as saying,

"We need to be careful to keep a balance when interpreting the results, so that we do not send a negative message to mothers that they have failed, or make them feel guilty because they bottle-fed their babies."

And I agree, wholeheartedly, with the first part of that sentence; we mustn't send a negative message to mothers that they have failed.  But the line about making them feel guilty?  That's trickier to agree with, because accepting that we mustn't make them feel guilty suggests there is something to feel guilty about in the first place.

Is there?  Should women be feeling guilt about breastfeeding not working out for them, as opposed to any other emotion?  Should new research that highlights the brilliance of breastfeeding on bonding, behaviour or anything else make women feel guilty?  I really don't think so.

Watch Your Language

Diane Wiessinger puts it like this in her piece, entitled Watch Your Language:

"Try this on: You have been crippled in a serious accident. Your physicians and physical therapists explain that learning to walk again would involve months of extremely painful and difficult work with no guarantee of success. They help you adjust to life in a wheelchair, and support you through the difficulties that result. Twenty years later, when your legs have withered beyond all hope, you meet someone whose accident matched your own. "It was difficult," she says. "It was three months of sheer hell. But I've been walking ever since." Would you feel guilty?

Women to whom I posed this scenario told me they would feel angry, betrayed, cheated. They would wish they could do it over with better information. They would feel regret for opportunities lost."

So, how do we move beyond this?  Wiessinger goes on to say:

"Let's rephrase, using the words women themselves gave me: "We don't want to make bottlefeeding mothers feel angry. We don't want to make them feel betrayed. We don't want to make them feel cheated." Peel back the layered implications of "we don't want to make them feel guilty," and you will find a system trying to cover its own tracks. It is not trying to protect her. It is trying to protect itself. Let's level with mothers, support them when breastfeeding doesn't work, and help them move beyond this inaccurate and ineffective word."

Into the future

So, let's decide to make it different.  Let's not buy into the language of guilt, let's get angry instead.  We need to expect more from those who are meant to support us to breastfeed, to be the breastfeeding experts.  Ask your health professional - midwife, health visitor, GP - how much breastfeeding training they've had and which organisation that training was from (hint: a study day funded by a formula manufacturer doesn't count). 

Research can tell us that breastfeeding is awesome till the cows come home, but unless money is put into breastfeeding education programmes for health professionals, practice won't change and society will continue to value "not making women feel guilty" over "ensuring women have better experiences".

And if we keep blaming each other, feeling guilty and trying not to think about it until the next piece of research comes out that stabs us in the gut with regret, betrayal and anger, nothing will get better for anyone and our daughters and granddaughters will continue that cycle.

So, what can you do?

Find out if your local maternity hospital is Baby Friendly - and, if not, write to the CEO to ask when they will be.

Challenge the language you use yourself.  Don't buy into the formula manufacturer marketing spin of "not making women who can't breastfeed feel guilty".  They love that line; it effectively closes down debate, because anyone who continues talking past it being said is 'attacking new mothers'.

Challenge that language when you hear others using it.  Because it is OK to talk about breastfeeding positively and, if we did it more, fewer women would have anything to feel angry, betrayed or regretful about.  We can't do anything to change things for women whose children have moved beyond breastfeeding, but we can change things for their children.  Let's give it a go.

What are people saying about Acorn Pack?

Read testimonials here...