How do we change the cultural norm? This question has been on my mind lately. The context for me, of course, is breastfeeding. If breastfeeding is viewed as being hard, inconvenient and painful by the majority of women in our culture how do we change that perception? If breasts are primarily viewed as sexual objects how do we change that perception?
Yes, breastfeeding is hard. But Holy Shit, being a parent is hard. Being a parent is inconvenient. And breastfeeding should never be painful but often is because of the lack of proper and timely information and support.
In a world faced with increasing nuclear proliferation, global warming and a host of other ills, promoting and protecting breastfeeding is a no brainer. The scientific evidence is clear and has been for years. Breastfeeding makes babies healthier and smarter. And not just healthier in the beginning but throughout a lifetime. So why are breastfeeding rates still so low in the U.S.? If we let the babies decide they would clearly all vote to be breastfed.
I got an idea the other day from an on-line breastfeeding listserve. Take the message of healthy, smarter babies into the high schools. Talk to teens, who want to change the world for the better, about the myths and popular perceptions of breastfeeding. Get 'em while they are young.
So I sent e-mails to the health teachers in our local high schools the other day and offered my volunteer time to speak to their classes. I have not received a single response. Am I cracked? Is the idea that off base? How can I get my foot in the door? Any advice you can give me would be appreciated.
I am in an idealistic frame of mind. I believe that with help from my 20 or so readers that we can save the world....
Please know that I did not intend to upset or demean any woman who reads this who did not have an optimal breastfeeding experience herself. We all do the best we can with the information and support we have at the time.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Changing The Cultural Norm
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15 comments:
While your idea is great, the audience may be viewed as a problem. You're trying to get them before they have babies; but schools and parents may worry that you're promoting early parenthood (or a host of other things related to early sexual encounters). What about the birthing classes and the public health department and the local churches (who run programs for youth)?
You're trying to de-sexify breasts but the schools are trying to pretend they don't exist!
Just imagine if you were in Kentucky where at least half the girls are pulled out of sex-ed because the parents are SURE that they don't need that information YET! Jeez!
I know in CT that special classes are offered through the State to teenage mothers or expectant mothers on welfare. Have you contacted any similar places up there? They may be more responsive to your offer.
It's a personal crusade for me now as well, to educate and enlighten friends and family about the benefits of breastfeeding. So far I am not winning any battles, but the campaign continues...
Good points all. My focus is not so much on educating them on HOW to breastfeed but on why it an vital step that we ALL need to support in order to change the world. Again, the focus would be on debunking popular preceptions...myths.
Synchronicity!
I was just getting ready to post an entry about breastfeeding... it will be awkward to get into the schools, but if that's where you want to be you could try hitting up the health teachers. Make a mini presentation so they know what you're trying to get across. Show them how prepared you are and how important for health this is. Don't give them a reason to say no and they may say yes.
i think that breastfeeding should be a bigger part of the sex ed classes. do they do sex ed in the US? I had a crappy crappy BF experiance, he went form six to three lbs and they kept saying feed him more often feed him longer for days, finally i could not take it and we put him on formu;la, he was back to six lbs in a week and a half. this DID have a major role in me not BF the next two, but i honestly think if I had help in the hospital, nice help, i would have tried again, with number three. (Number two I hemoraged with and didnt know him for a week, so thats moot)
but i dont think you are on the wrong track with the high school students, it makes perfect sense, i just dont think the goverment willa gree, isnt dubya a prick when it coems to that stuff?
How about a community college? They might be a little more willing to acknowledge that breast exist and have a function. I know there are health ed classes.
How about at those childbirth classes that many of us took before having their first baby?
I volunteer at a place that does counseling for kids. There is a class that they have for young parents and young parents-to-be. So that's another place to try.
I assumed that everyone knows that breastfeeding is better, so i am surprised to hear that someone may prefer formula when they have an option.
I think breastfeeding WAS easier. They were always with me, and the right temperature. No bottles and sterilizing. But i now realize that i was lucky.
i was just talking about this topic yesterday. i am in the midst of breasfeeding a 1 month old and yes it was hard and scarry at first. i am so glad i knew who to turn to for help. it was (is)frustrating that i had no idea what to do! i never watched anyone breastfeed before...such a sad thing. i am still a little aprehensive about feeding him in public but i hope i am able to do so and defend myself against cranky, uninformed people. thanks for letting me rant and for writing about this. portland is a pretty breastfeeding friendly city but if you can think of anything i could do to help let me know!
That is interesting. I have been thinking about it to because on more than one occasion someone has mentioned to me that it is time to wean my 10 month old. (mind you i was complaining because I am batteling thrush and being biten AGAIN, so maybe I had it coming to me.)
I think both men and women need to be educated on breastfeeding. My mother breastfed me because my father asked her to.
What about working with an OB or a pediatrician? Do you think you can put your card in the packets that pregnant women get when they find out they are pregnant and maybe a short (one page with pictures) description of what you do and the benefits?
I always thought it would be nice for the LC to meet with people at the OB's office as part of the standard protocal, say like at the 26th week visit. Just so I could ask questions and get answers and not have to do any work.
Childbirth classes - yes. I can tell you that in my Bradley classes we focused (of course) on the birth - but not really what happens after. I assumed I'd breastfeed (mostly because my childbirth teacher recommended it strongly), and I did, but with no support and very little knowledge (I was just lucky and stubborn). How WONDERFUL it would have been to have had a lactation expert come to one of our later classes and give us some REAL information - and some numbers for help, too.
I'm with Linda - the school are definitely trying to pretend breasts don't exist. Your idea makes perfect sense - but not to those people. Sad, really.
I like all the ideas offered above! Going to a community college and asking to speak at a health ed class is an EXCELLENT idea. Lots and lots of young people there. AND I also liked the idea of putting your info in with the ob/gyn doctor's info that they give you at your first appt when you find out you REALLY are pregnant. Speaking at birthing classes is also a great great idea, especially for first time parents.
I had crappy bf experiences too, but it wasn't from lack of support. My body just did not like to make milk for some reason. I think because that meant I would burn more calories and my body wants NONE of that nonsense, let me tell you. I DID BF both boys until they were 8 months old, but my milk would start to dry up if I didn't feed them for 8 hours, if I wasn't home or something, it was CRAZY.
My Mom breastfeed all of us and was a major supporter of it. She told us our whole lives that bottles were no good and nursing was the way to go. She's a reformed hippee, what can I say? I also had a lacation helper right in my hospital room after both boys were born helping me breastfeed. I also went to WIC and they are MAJOR supporters of BFing. Some call them nipple nazi's, which always cracks me up. :)
Anyway, I hope you can find a willing audience to benefit from your knowledge.
http://www.bloggingbaby.com/2006/10/15/breastfeeding-and-intelligence/
there was this article a while back in blogging baby about intellegence.
I think the high school thing is a great idea. Linda makes a good point, but it shouldn't stop you - just know that you're doing good and that you'll meet resistance, but that you can counter it with reasonable arguments. I teach high school, and am the faculty advisor of a club where students educate their peers about sexual health. This causes all sorts of consternation among some of my collegues, but I just have to keep giving them my rationale, supporting the students in the club, and sticking to my guns.
Breastfeeding can be hard, but once you've worked out the kinks it's not, and it makes many other difficult aspects of parenting easier. It can be painful, at first, but if you stick to it, it stops being painful. (Sex can also be painful for women at first - it was for me - but it seems like people are usually willing to keep trying...)
Word of mouth does wonders. I tell anyone wondering, expecting, considering that breastfeeding was easy (for me), amazing, convenient, on and on. One downside was the occasional exasperation of feeling like a sloppy cow when the pads weren't absorbent enough and I changed my shirt again in a day. But that was the only negative of the entire experience. I will treasure always the memory of dim light in the middle of the night, feeling exhausted and groggy, but looking down at that little face, feeling that little face, listening to the little noises....sigh. Waxing nostalgic now....
okay -- have removed nostalgia hat and am now wearing marketing hat. Do you care what demographic you reach? Do you want middle class moms or at-risk teens? WHich is more likely to take your advice? Who might be interested in hearing (I assume)that breatfeeding saves $X dollars over buying formula or who works and so uses formula because (frankly) pumping is a drag.
The formula companies have hospital giveaways -- samples and those insulated bags -- that encourage you to think that's a great option and what everyone else does. Could you think of an inexpensive giveaway that would counter that message and give info on breastfeeding that every mother would get in the hospital?
Where can you catch moms-to-be where they are already gathered in case they just aren't motivated to make a special trip for a breast-feeding class/talk? Do the high schools and colleges have any kind of support group for young mothers to be -- can you create such a place -- a warm nest that would offer some advice on diet during pregnancy, some "girlfriend" advice on the birth experience (I was so terrified of water breaking somewhere embarrassing and couldn't find anyone to tell me about it except Iovine), and counsel on breastfeeding?
Post-birth I was offered a lactation counselor but I didn't use it because a) people scare me and b) I was scared enough about dealing with a baby for the first time and didn't want anyone pointig out things I was doing wrong. So it seems best to try and get women as part of some other piece of the experience. I did feel lonely and isolated (part baby, part husband having an affair) and if someone had waved me over to a mommy's group I would probably have tried it -- espeically if it wasn't at someone's house and I could slip in and slip out if I felt awkward.
You may also be battling generational attitudes -- moms of the fifties telling daughters formula is the way to go? Daughter does as mom did? So consider nabbing grandmothers-to-be as well. "It takes a village."
I am a huge breastfeeding advocate, and it pains me to see my mommy friends feeding their babies bottles of formula, many struggling with allergies and other digestional issues. I am always shocked by how many people go right to formula without trying to breastfeed.
Personally I don't think the high schools are the way to go. And I'm not sure I have a great solution to the problem either.
I think the tide is slowly changing, but it will take time. Aren't breastfeeding rates increasing? I know of several people who used formula for their first few kids and switched to nursing after being friends with nursing moms and seeing the benefits. I really think it's a one-at-a-time sort of thing. We have to normalize breastfeeding, and that's only done by people experiencing friends and family doing it. Here is my story in a nutshell.
When I got pregnant, I thought bf was gross. I felt it was probably only marginally better for the baby, and I really only did it b/c it was cheap. I was going to be a sahm, and I couldn't justify buying formula. I planned to nurse for the obligatory six months and then switch to formula. Well, six turned to nine. (A year still seemed kind of wacko.) Then when I got to nine, it seemed silly to switch for just a few months, so I continued for a year.
Well, by then it was so enjoyable to me and him, and the whole idea of nursing past a year had become normalized to me b/c I had "cyberfriends" who did it and talked about it.
I slowly weaned until I quit at 19 months. I nursed my first dd until 26 months, quitting b/c I got pg unexpectedly. I'll probably nurse my 2nd dd till she's in college. Haha. Just kidding.
But really, for me, it was a gradual process of normalizing the experience with my exposure to it and my own personal experience and ease with it.
I guess I'm trying to say, there are probably no easy answers, but I think we should all do what we can to expose others to the benefits.
You have a great opportunity to help those who struggle b/c you are trained to do so. I guess I'd try to find opportunities to educate and help those who probably don't have a lot of exposure to breastfeeding. I like the suggestions of some to seek out programs that help teenage and welfare moms.
Sorry so long.
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