The Fallacy of the "Naturalness" of Breast-Feeding
Ring -Ring. “Hello?”
“Hi Katie, its Graham. My wife wanted me to ask you about lactation stuff.”
Incidentally this happens not infrequently. I get questions from high school friends, grad school comrades, and colleagues trying to short-cut the scientific literature. This must be due to my charming personality (obnoxiously extroverted), demographic (the prevalence of breast-feeding in the US is highest among 30-something, Caucasian, college-educated women), but it probably has the most to do with my research. I have been grateful for these conversations because fielding questions about lactation, breast-milk, and infant development for non-specialists is the most worth-while upshot of being a scientist. To me, making the results of scientific research accessible and meaningful to real people making real decisions is the social contract we sign when we accept grants funded by tax-payers.
To be clear, I am not a medical doctor or a certified lactation counselor. The women, and their supportive partners, who seek out information from me do so for a variety of reasons. They want an evolutionary biological perspective, they feel comfortable asking me questions that they might not with a relative stranger, or they want to verify that the information they are being told reflects the state of the science. These conversations were an important motivator for creating Mammals Suck… Milk!
Often I have to remind myself that I am probably getting a very biased snap-shot of the unfortunate experiences of new mothers. Its highly probable that the majority of new mothers feel that their needs are met by their doctors and lactation counselors. But some moms reach out to a wider support network that ends up reaching me. These new moms clearly want to breast feed, but struggle with how difficult it is.
Related to this, I have no idea why everyone thinks breast-feeding should be so easy and straightforward. This appalling expectation leads mothers who have difficulties breastfeeding to feel guilty, stressed, and unwomanly. Yes, breastfeeding is natural. Yes, the synthesis of milk in mammary glands has evolved over tens of millions of years. That doesn’t mean we are automatically great at it, right out of the gate.
You know what else is natural and has deep evolutionary roots?
Sex.
And I am pretty sure we all start out being terrible at it.
For these reasons, I am now working on a series of posts that reflect the questions I've gotten over the years about mother's milk. If there are any questions or topics that you are desperate for "Mammals Suck" to address, let me know!
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This recent article about the perceived lack of difficulties with breast-feeding is unfortunately not open access, so I have provided the abstract.
Abstract: Although breastfeeding initiation rates have recently been at an all-time high, duration continues to be considerably low. Given the health benefits associated with extended breastfeeding, this discrepancy is cause for concern. This research examined the messages conveyed about infant feeding in a popular parenting magazine, Parents magazine, from 1930 through 2007. Findings indicated that the messages about infant feeding shifted in accordance with changing ideologies about the means of infant feeding-from bottle-feeding to breastfeeding. However, even with changing attitudes toward infant feeding, writers used scientific evidence and the advice of "experts" to justify the dominant form of feeding. The absence of practical advice regarding breastfeeding challenges, especially from "real" women set up false expectations about the breastfeeding experience, painting it as "natural" and best for the baby. The dependency on experts and lack of practical advice in popular media, like Parents magazine, may help explain a societal trend that downplays breastfeeding obstacles, giving insight into the vast discrepancy between breastfeeding initiation and duration.
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tortoise photo: http://www.elephanttrust.org/sites/elephanttrust.org/files/Mating_tortoise.png
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