Starting in September, New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s “Latch on NYC” initiative will start urging hospitals to keep baby formula under lock-down. This new push to encourage new mothers to breastfeed will require new moms who are seeking formula for their infants to sign the formula out like medication. It reminds me of going up to the counter and buying your pseudoephedrine via the pharmacist after you have provided three forms of identification and have been made to feel like a crackhead for trying to treat your damn sinus infection.
A new mother will never be refused formula under the new initiative to promote breastfeeding, but she will indeed receive a “mandated” talking to from the staff on why she should opt out of her unhealthy choice.
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Yes, you certainly have the right to choose but know that your choice is a bad one and you are a bad person. Now, go home and think about what a piece of shit you are for doing this. Are you sure you want to give your baby formula after we’ve just told you how much better breast milk is for little Johnny? Okay, just so you know, that makes you an even worse parent, Mommy dearest. Just say no to formula. Shame on you for even considering formula. What kind of mother are you?
Don’t get me wrong. I think breast is best. But some people, like me, cannot breastfeed. I tried but I never produced enough breast milk. I tried everything. I pumped. I fed on demand. I popped fenugreek like it was going out of style. I drank mother’s milk tea. I drank a beer. But it did not work. I was desperate but no amount of trying, wishing, or praying would make my breasts function at a level that could sustain my children.
The first night home with our first child, I was up all night long because my daughter constantly cried to be fed. I was not producing any milk yet. She was starving. She cried. I cried. She turned orange. I took her back to the hospital. She had jaundice because I couldn’t produce enough breast milk to get into her system to help her not be. I had to use an SNS system to feed my baby. I was forced to use formula or let her starve. I still continued to breastfeed her until I stopped producing. I didn't quit breastfeeding my child by choice, my breasts stopped producing breast milk.
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I am all for breastfeeding and I think it is awesome, but sorry, Mr. Bloomberg, until you have a vagina and a uterus, don’t try and tell me how to feed my baby. Until you can produce breast milk, don't tell me that it's as easy as making a choice not to buy formula. When you can experience what it’s like to feel like a loser because you can’t produce enough breast milk to keep your baby alive and then have to sit through a “talk” that some male government official thinks you should have to receive to show you the error of your ways, then you can tell me how to feed my baby.
This is just one more instance of government getting into mom's business and women's reproductive rights. You may very well be right, Mayor Bloomberg, breast milk may be best. I agree. But for those of who can’t produce, should our children be punished because our bodies don’t function effectively? Should we mothers be made to feel like criminals because for whatever reason we choose or need to give our babies formula?
What do you think of the Latch on NYC initiative?
Image via NYC.gov
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Comments 290
Right on Paula.
Ha ha ha ha i have to laugh at the breastfeeding pyscho's on this topic, same women that are for the mayor having any say about their breast are the same ones that cry stay out of my uterus. Second the same breastfeeding pyscho's who want to push their agenda need to understand this concept once the camel puts his nose in the tent then his whole body will be in, meaning you might like that he is for breastfeeding but later one when he wants to force you into vaccinating your kids or forcing you to public school or whatever it is, i dont want to hear shit. You let the government do anything and you lose your rights to make decions that are best for you. And i dare some nurse to walk in to my hospital room and tell me what to do with my child, watch how fast the police will be called cause i beat your ass.
I've been in the same situation as the author. I tried everything in my power to breastfeed, and I felt incredibly guilty that I "wasn't doing it right" (that's all I heard from people - that I just wasn't doing it right, even after I followed every piece of advice). My son had 'brick dust' urine, in which his urine didn't even seem like it was liquid - just dusty, reddish stuff - and is an indicator that the baby is not receiving enough nutrients. I finally had to make the choice to switch to formula; once I did, my son immediately improved. A short time later, I read a blog entry from a mom who wrote that women who claim that they can't make enough milk have been lied to by their doctors, because our bodies are designed to make milk, so why wouldn't they? I was PISSED; after all, would you tell a man who couldn't produce enough sperm that he was just being lied to, that he's totally fertile because "that's what testes are made for"? It's ludicrous and, frankly, very insulting. Sometimes, formula is necessary, and no amount of guilt dished out on us can change it.