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
Yes, because the first thing a new mother who is having a hard time needs when she decides to supplement with formula (for what ever reason) is a guilt trip. And don't let it fool you, as someone who made it to a year by pumping and storing milk for all three of my kids, supplementing with formula only when my production was low and my frozen supply dropped, that's what it is, a HUGE Guilt trip. You're not good enough, you're not trying hard enough, you don't love your baby or their well being enough, etc, etc, etc. I COULD NOT nurse at the breast, it wasn't just "bad latch", it was that my nipples were too fricking HUGE to fit more than the tip in my kids mouth and anxiety about it so bad that it almost killed my supply. So I PUMPED, and still got treated like the Antichrist by nursing Moms and lactation consultants, and a freak by formula moms. And when my appendix ruptured and I had to pump and dump for 6 weeks, I supplemented my frozen supply with formula. Sometimes a families stress level and mental well being come first!
If you want to get of the marketing tools (swag bags) and keep formula locked up that's fine. I draw the line at having a nurse lecture me on what to feed my child. After being in pain from delivering an almost 11 pound baby boy, and worrying about him in the NICU I will cut a nurse who feel the need to lecture me on something when I'm trying to feed my baby.
I'm sure the majority of women agonize over the decision to breastfeed or formula feed. There is more to it than say pop out a boob. Factors such as diseases, whether you can produce enough milk, time management, work schedules, etc. Formula feeding does not make you less a mom. I will tell people to watch out for rules such as this because it's like we are going back in time. Next thing you know women will be punished for going to work instead of staying home. If you eat a cookie you will be arrested.
WOW - I don't know where you people had gave birth, but NOBODY at the hospital I went to pushed formula on me. And as far as the "goody bag" I was grateful to have it as a new mom after a C-section who couldn't breastfeed no matter how much I wanted to. Why is it so difficult for people (women in particular) to STOP BEING SO JUDGMENTAL and stop assuming those of us who formula fed our kids are just stupid and didn't know any better?? Do you really think a "talking to" would've made a difference to me other than making me feel like a failure and worsening my post-partum depression?? Women should SUPPORT each other and their choices in raising their children and MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS - and the government has no place interfering with a mother and HER CHILD.
if its true that all the women I see formula feeding their babies can't breastfeed, the human race wold have ended thousand of years ago...I wonder why since formula was invented women started to not be able to breastfeed
I am so sick of people assuming that women who choose to formula feed are ignorant or uninformed. The reality is that there are a multitude of factors that go into deciding how to feed your baby. It IS possible for two people to have the exact same information yet make two different decisions. I'm insulted that people feel all women who have chosen formula NEED to be educated. I'm also glad that I'm done having children and will never again have to worry about being bullied for these kinds of choices.
Seriously after reading some of these comments I'm more concern about why women gives themselves such a hard time after having children. It's like our personality changes to the extreme. As long as you give your child love, food, and shelter the rest will come naturally. It seems as soon as a woman becomes pregnant we reading numerous books, listening to everyone with an opinion on how to raise children. There is so much mommy competition it's no wonder women get sick with worry all the time.