by Carrie DiStefano, CLEC, Mom2Mom KMC Education Director
I will admit
that I had a slightly skewed view before I even saw this movie. A couple of friends had posted that they had
seen it and were both disappointed.
Always one to keep an open mind, I thought to myself, “it can’t be THAT
bad”. I was hoping that my friends were
wrong and that once I saw it I would be excited and think that we could save
the world with breastfeeding and then chest bump all of my breastfeeding girlfriends.
I put the
DVD in my laptop and tell my husband that I am doing “school work” and need to
be left alone. I start the movie, and
the scene opens to a woman at her baby shower opening gifts of breastfeeding
related paraphernalia. Not exactly
attention-grabbing as a high speed chase, but I keep watching. The film follows 6-7 women on their
breastfeeding journeys. Following them
from about the time they are 7 months pregnant through the first year of the
baby’s life, each woman has a unique, yet often similar story of breastfeeding. Almost
all of the women face hurdles that are, unfortunately, all too commonly found
in America. Some of the challenges these women face
include: a late-term preemie, an unexpected
c-section, a baby that has problems latching, and a tongue and lip tie. One thing that all of these women have in
common was that they all said they wanted to breastfeed when they were
pregnant. All of these issues, if
addressed by a knowledgeable professional with lactation training, can be
remedied and breastfeeding goals can be met.
Women often
have ingrained in them that breastfeeding is “natural”, “instinctive”, and “what
the breasts were made for”. While all of
this is, in fact, true many women still decide breastfeeding is not for them
and switch to artificial baby milk. Why
are so many women starting out saying they want to breastfeed and then not
following through? Breastmilk provides a great insight into the perceptions that women
have about breastfeeding and why they switch.
What this movie had the capacity to do, but failed miserably, is to
educate people about breastfeeding. Breastmilk essentially educates people
about the challenges of breastfeeding, not the success stories and how
challenges can be overcome. In fact,
only one of the moms was still breastfeeding when her baby turned a year
old. Almost all of the others started
some type of supplementation, if not a full transition to formula, prior to the
baby turning 6 months. I want to take
this opportunity to dispel some of the myths and misinformation presented in
the movie.
Karin was
told that her 36 weeker, born just a few weeks early and weighing in at nearly
6 pounds needed human milk fortifier.
FACT: Preemies can latch on to
the breast and get what they need VERY early on – even prior to 36 weeks. There’s no need for any sort of fortifier
(read: formula) unless it’s medically
necessary, for example, galactosemia which is a rare condition, or very low
birth weight preemies under approximately 3 pounds, or infants with phenylketonuria. In fact, introducing foreign substances to a
baby (including formula) can sometimes harm the baby as it increases the risk
for necrotizing enterocolitis (one of the most common and serious intestinal
diseases among preemies) versus breastmilk which contains immunological
properties that can help protect preterm infants.
Karin also
believed that breastfed babies gain weight more slowly in the beginning and
then speed up their weight gain as they are older. FACT:
The opposite is true. Breastfed
babies often gain weight quickly in the first 3-4 months and then slow
down.
Colleen is a
biologist and she wants her baby to latch on his own as it’s an instinctive,
innate behavior that he can do without any assistance. Yes!
This is true – thank you, Colleen!
Unfortunately what happens with Colleen is that she has a bit of an
impatient and assertive nurse who wants the crying baby to hurry up and latch
on. So while Colleen watches her baby
grab on to her breast, even though he’s not sucking, the nurse insists on
helping her and takes the baby’s head and tries to help position him to latch
on. FACT: Babies can and will latch on without any
help from anyone. Skin-to-skin
immediately after birth will help facilitate this instinct known as the breast
crawl, where the baby is searching for the breast and is able to find it and begin
nursing. It may not necessarily be a
perfect latch as baby has to learn how to perfect his or her technique, but he
can latch on and suck – two instincts that babies are born with.
Colleen’s
baby is also diagnosed with a lip and tongue tie. Ties are common in breastfeeding and can
cause a lot of barriers to breastfeeding success if not diagnosed and
corrected. They restrict movement which
creates problems with breastfeeding as the baby’s tongue cannot reach the top
of his or her mouth. The baby cannot
get a good latch at the breast and causes pain to the mother. Babies who have ties also sometimes do not
gain weight as well due to their inefficient sucking ability. The movie actually does a good explanation
of a tongue and lip tie and how they affect breastfeeding. If only they had included more of these
teaching moments, the movie would have been much better.
Only one mom
was still breastfeeding at one year. She
had attended a breastfeeding support group meeting with her baby to get
reassurance from other moms (it’s unclear from the movie if she attended more
than one meeting). However, this mom did
start pumping prior to her baby being born as she was concerned about her milk
supply. Her pumping likely caused her to
have contractions and she went into labor that night. A lot of moms believe that nipple stimulation
can help with supply and/or to prepare the breasts for breastfeeding. FACT:
This is absolutely not true and as shown in the movie may cause a mom to
start contracting and go into labor. A
mom-to-be does not need to prepare her breasts for breastfeeding and any sort
of artificial nipple stimulation is discouraged.
One of the
mothers in the movie also was faced with an unexpected c-section delivery. After the delivery, she says she felt very
out of it and was not comfortable holding or feeding her baby. What many women don’t realize, especially
first time moms, is that the delivery can affect breastfeeding. In the movie, it’s obvious how the delivery
affected the young mother, but moms who have long labors and/or may have
received extra fluids can also be very much affected when it comes to latching
their baby to the breast. Extra fluids
may cause water retention which in turn may cause issues with a baby being able
to latch on. The extra fluids may also cause a delay from
the transition of colostrum to mature milk.
A procedure known as reverse pressure softening can help with extra
water retention in order to help the baby latch on. And regarding the mature milk, the mom just
needs to understand that a couple of extra days may be needed before she has
her mature milk.
The movie
went on to interview a family who many breastfeeding moms likely would not be
able to relate to. It is this family that
was used as an example of what full-term breastfeeding looks like. That is, the mom was still nursing her
toddler who was probably between 2 and 3 years old. The American Academy of Pediatrics
recommendation is that “exclusive breastfeeding for about the first six months
of a baby's life, followed by breastfeeding in combination with the
introduction of complementary foods until at least 12 months of age, and
continuation of breastfeeding for as long as mutually desired by mother and
baby”. The World Health Organization’s
recommendation on breastfeeding duration is, “Exclusive breastfeeding is
recommended up to 6 months of age, with continued breastfeeding along with
appropriate complementary foods up to two years of age or beyond”.
There are a
lot of moms that nurse past one year and to use a couple who most viewers would
not be able to connect with is doing a disservice to the idea of breastfeeding
into toddlerhood.
While this
movie IS an accurate representation of a typical American mom’s breastfeeding
journey, it leaves much to be desired in educating the audience on
breastfeeding. Not only is it missing an opportunity to
educate moms, but it also lacks focus and a purpose. I turned off my laptop feeling a bit
confused and disappointed in a movie that I had such high hopes for.
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