You Know You Have No Life When You Blog About Facebook

I found out on Facebook that it is international breastfeeding week, and decided to post the official "breastfeeding week" Facebook status:

"DID YOU KNOW: A lack of exclusive breastfeeding during the first 6months of life contributes to over a million avoidable child deaths each year AND Globally less than 40% of infants under 6months of age are exclusively breastfed. Breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure child health and survival! HAPPY WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK!"

I got a lot of comments, and was very impressed a) by how much people cared b) by how much people knew on the subject.

My views on breastfeeding, which have been revised a bit in the past few days thanks to friends comments, can be summed up as follows:

I think there is a history of taboos about breast-feeding in Western culture (for most of history, it was considered unhealthy for a mother to nurse her own child) and that this taboo has permeated Western medical culture, which of course then imposes that on the developing world in its interactions with that world. This is related to our patriarchal society's fear of women's bodies, especially the life-giving nature of women's bodies, which is of course integrally bound to a woman's sexual nature as well (in the eyes of said society - today, birth control has changed that. of course, for women who are only interested in women birth (may or) may not be related to sex, but since when has society really taken gay people - of any gender - into account, unless its to condemn their actions?) As a matter of fact, the entire concept of baby formula is that the medical-technology complex can do better than a woman's body exactly what a woman's body is naturally designed to do - an example of mysogyny at work. Misleading marketing by formula companies has convinced many in the developing world that formula is better than breast milk, when that is often not the case. (If the mother has certain diseases or is on certain medication, that may be the case, but the risk to the baby from the disease/medicine must be weighed against the risks in not breast-feeding on a case-by-case basis, as opposed to the often knee-jerk reaction of "Mother's sick, baby must have formula" that even doctors will often have.)

This taboo co-existed with an idealization - indeed perhaps even a fetishization of - Mary's breasts as she nursed Jesus, a fascination which culminated in the cult of Mariology and the writings of St. Bernard of Clarveaux.

On the other hand, I ertainly dont think society should shame women into breastfeeding, and it must respect a woman's privacy and control over her body. I do think however, that the medical esbalishment should encourag women who are able to breastfeed to do so, since it does have huge genefits for the baby, and society should also provide a better maternoty leave, which would, among other benefits, make it easier to breasteed. I also think breastdeeing in public should be socially acceptable.


Here are some links friends shared in response to my Facebook posting:

http://www.breastfeedinginc.ca/content.php?pagename=doc-B-M

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toplessness#Cultural_and_legal_attitudes_in_the_West

http://www.who.int/child_adolescent_health/documents/9241591226/en/index.html

http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/health/2011-08-02/cdc-report-urges-hospitals-promote-breast-feeding

A friend of mine also pointed out that Rossaue apparently was a big advocate of women breast-feeding their children, but in the context of Roussau's other writings on women, I am more inclind to treat that as an attempt by Rousseau to exert male societal control over the woman's body which must be utilized to nourish French youth, and therefore as its own type of objectification of the female.

Also, an op-ed on the subject, and a rebuff of the op-ed:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/opinion/23kristof.html?_r=1

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/opinion/lweb06kristof.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=breast-feeding&st=cse

On a semi-related note, as of this week, in the USA, all health insurance plans must cover birth control. Yay!

http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2011pres/08/20110801b.html


If you want more information on the cult of Mariology, I highly recommend "Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary", by Marina Warner.

Or you could read about it in brief from the Met's timeline. Warning: The timelines are addictive!