Baby-Friendly or Mom-Unfriendly? You decide.
by Kate Kahn - 14th January 2008
There's alot of press these days on a movement that people are calling “Baby-Friendly" hospitals and I have to say I’m completely insulted by the term. The initiative, created by WHO and UNICEF, seeks to increase breastfeeding rates by awarding hospitals, that bring their standard procedures in maternity wards into line with the organizations' `10 steps to successful breastfeeding', special "baby-friendly" status. Hospitals are awarded this title if they put supports in that advocate breastfeeding only, no formula attached (unless it's needed for medical reasons).
The goal, to increase breastfeeding rates, is fine in and of itself. What I take issue with is the terminology "baby-friendly". What they are in fact doing is insinuating that if you don’t breastfeed you’re not being friendly to your baby. Parse the words another way, it simply says “bad mom”. So, are hospitals that support informed choices for new moms “baby unfriendly?” Give me a break!
How ridiculous is this? How far are we, as a society, going to go in terms of terrorizing new mothers into feeling so much guilt that they end up beating themselves up about how to feed their child? I’m serious. This is over the top. If a hospital chooses to support nothing but breastfeeding, fine, that’s its choice. You might say to me that mothers can then decide whether or not to use that hospital. That’s true too. For the most part. But there are some women who don’t live near multiple hospitals and don’t have that choice. So are we saying that if the nearest hospital to them is not a “baby-friendly” hospital, they are being bad mothers? And what about a woman who chooses not to breastfeed because it's a better decision for her family and its dynamics? Think about it.
If a hospital wants to try to increase breastfeeding rates by not supporting any other type of feeding method, I buy that. What I don’t buy is the label “baby-friendly.” I think preys on a new mother’s vulnerability and is not only damaging, but dangerous.
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