Misguided Breastfeeding Advice from Those Professing to be Experts

I think it's important to note the perspective of feminism regarding the feeding of babies. During much of the twentieth century, feminists viewed artificial feeding as part of women's liberation from childcare. Anyone could bottle feed a baby, and a mother could put even a tiny infant into child care. They devalued breastfeeding, and actively sought to undermine it. Now, some feminists have come to the opposite conclusion: that breastfeeding is a feminist act. It must be so hard to be a feminist these days; it must be quite confusing.

Nurses are often working women. They are sometimes working women who espouse feminism and women having careers outside of the home. One might even say that the majority of nurses are at least sympathetic to modern, moderate feminism. They are always people, and people have opinions and biases. They have feelings, even if they are consummate professionals capable of excellent diplomacy. Even nurses who are also International Board Certified Lactation Consultants sometimes say or do things questionable to the support of breastfeeding, so as not to compromise their feminist perspective.

Therefore, there is advice and bias in the world that undermines feeding babies at the breast. Some of it is perpetuating received notions from the past. People learned mistaken or misguided information, and never questioned it. They passed it on as truth. Some of it is thinly veiled hostility to mothers who have chosen a lifestyle that emphasizes mother-care of infants. That mothers don't breastfeed is reassurance that anyone can feed a baby, that mothers don't have anything unique to offer in child care. Some of it is between these two marks.

I make this observation as a lesson in compassion: compassion for women who struggle with unhelpful advice on feeding their babies; compassion for working women who deal with their emotions on feeding their children; compassion for those who unknowingly pass on poor information; compassion for feminists who actively seek to undermine breastfeeding relationships; compassion for bystanders confused by it all. I have much to learn about compassion, but I write this as part of my lesson.