Comments on: Cultural Support Needed for Women Who Breastfeed, Plus a Pitchman for Breast Milk

By: MSDAY, QUERCIANELLAM ITALIA

MSDAY, QUERCIANELLAM ITALIA — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:06:16 +0000

There are some things which are ingrained culturally to the point that it sometimes is unshakable. I am a black woman living in Italy. I recently gave birth to a beautiful baby girl and the issue of breast feeding was a shock for me. I choose to bottle feed mostly because I am and have always been anemic and when I am not pregnant, I don’t eat a nutritious and balanced diet. There is some thing inside of me also that just has no desire to breast feed. When I gave birth, and informed them of my choice, I was told , “in Italy, we breast feed.” “I responded, well that is your choice, I am choosing not to do so.”
I felt pressured into making an attempt for the first day against my will after being surrounded by four nurses. I was not successful at it and each day, I had to deal with a person asking me “why” I didn’t want to breast feed. Even on the last day, I left and had to return for my baby the next day because she needed further testing. Although breast feeding mothers were allowed to see their children, I was told to go to the window to see mine.
The Italians breast feed anywhere and in front of everyone. On the first night of my attempt, the husband of the woman next door was in the room and she saw nothing wrong with leaving the door wide open. However, knowing what I know about Italy and how black women tend to attract unsolicited gawks from men due to the whole “brazillian prostitute” syndrome, I had a problem with it.
When I arrived at home, I sat down and thought about my decision and tried to figure out the why’s. Well, no one in my entire family has ever breast fed. Most of the women in my family were registered nurses/ lawyers and I assume it is because most of us have had busy schedules.
Then I went through the pentecostal connection as I call it in my family. My family is from the south originally and most of them are staunch Pentecostals, meaning that the culture of my family is extremely modest and conservative. In my family if a non family member drove one home from church and he was a married man, one had to sit in the back seat of the car. Imagine one of them baring a breast out in public. There was also something in the back of my mind, I never really allowed to come to the forefront. I always remember images from television based on the historical accounts of black women breast feeding during slavery and there is something inside of me that feels that it is shameful. I am being perfectly honest and I am sure that I will receive some backlash for my honesty.
I honestly believe that because of the way America was founded as far as religious traditions which were very conservative at one time, this is the reason breastfeeding in public is frowned upon. It is something that most Americans don’t think about because it was so long ago, yet it is ingrained culturally. We have seen the influx of people coming from diverse parts of the world where things are different. With diversity also comes differences of opinion.
The one beautiful thing about America is the freedom of choice. It is not as if one does not have choice in other countries, however there is a lot of cultural pressure. My opinion on breastfeeding is if it is for you, go for it. However, I think there should be some respect for the dominant culture in society. There is nothing wrong with a cloth to cover the breast if one is out in public. Most people have a problem with the naked breast exposed to the public in America not breastfeeding per se. Let’s face it, American culture is different from many others.

By: Emily

Emily — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:07:18 +0000

Wow! I never really thought about why black women don’t bf much. I think my main reason for bf was because it was what I know. I’m not from a priviledged white background. My mother bf and so did her mother and my aunts. It’s just what I grew up seeing. When people were rude in public, it was easy to brush it off in my early 20′s because they seemed to be the weird ones.

I can see how family opinions impact us. Whatever problems we had, my mother didn’t resolve bf problems with formula regardless of what my dr or MIL would have said. It just made sense to do it our way.

By: Deb

Deb — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:48:03 +0000

It’s so disheartening to realize that 25 years after I faced these same glares and rude comments, it is STILL happening. You’d think we’d have learned something in the last quarter century. Unfortunately, so much of our news is dictated by corporate interests. Baby food and baby formula makers make their money by convincing mothers that there’s a ‘better way’ to feed your baby.

In an interesting dichotomy, in my mother’s day, the poor and working class breastfed their babies. The well-to-do, educated and ‘informed’ used formula to ‘free them’, keep their breasts ‘shapely’ and be more ‘scientific’.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:41:58 +0000

Thank you for bringing this very real issue for breastfeeding mothers to light.

As a white mother with some college education, I am privileged. I live in a middle-class neighborhood and encounter mostly white middle-class people when out and about. Even with the privilege the patriarchy has “given” me, I was still given the occasional glare and rude remark from women who looked down on breastfeeding in public. There are so many retorts I could have come back with, but most of the time I kept nursing my daughter with a feeling of temporary shame.

If I felt this way, I cannot imagine how a hispanic or African American woman would be treated doing the exact same activity with racism rampant in the US. We do need better education concerning breastfeeding and to ELIMINATE formula commercials, hospital freebies (diaper bags, formula packets), and misleading information concerning both breastfeeding and formula. Nursing and potential nursing mothers need a wider support network, places they feel safe nursing in public (NOT the bathroom!), and for people to keep in mind the old adage: “If you’re not going to say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” We also need more doctors who know the benefits of breastfeeding and have accurate information concerning breastmilk and infant nutrition.