Bloomberg's latest nanny state overreach

[B-Fly]

He's now seeking to restrict new mothers' ability to choose whether to breast feed or formula feed their baby in the hospital. I'm okay with educating expectant and new mothers about the benefits of breast feeding. I'm okay with limiting the distribution of Similac or Infamil swag. What I'm not okay with is requiring hospitals to give mothers of newborns a lecture each and every time they request a bottle for their newborn and requiring the documentation of a medical reason for any bottle of formula given. Is breast milk best? Sure. Is infant formula so bad that we should be erecting as many barriers as possible to frustrate the efforts of a new mother who has elected, for whatever reason(s), to formula feed? Absolutely not.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/mayor_knows_breast_WqU1iYRQvwbEkDuvn0vb1H

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/07/31/new_york_mayor_bloomberg_s_new_breastfeeding_law_harmful_to_women.html

[DMT]

Ugh, that's nauseating.

[ironfist]

Saw this on the news the other day and my wife and I both were pretty annoyed with it.

[B-Fly]

Isn't this essentially the same as every single other medical procedure, where doctors educate patients on what the best option for long term health is? There is no doubt that breast feeding is clearly a better alternative to bottle feeding and that's how doctors should portray it, no?

Sure, educate. But this goes beyond education. Mandated lectures each time a mother requests formula and requiring a medical reason (i.e., maternal choice isn't a good enough reason)? That's not education. That's choice restriction, shaming and harassment, IMO.

It's like passing a local ordinance requiring food markets to keep the white bread in a locked case and to give anyone who asks for the white bread a brochure and a lecture about why whole wheat is healthier than white bread, then requiring the market to document the customer's medical basis for not buying whole wheat.

[Erik]

No one who's not a tinfoil-hat type disputes that breast feeding is better health-wise. Almost everyone who has a child or is about to already knows this. But some babies just can't or won't breast feed. Everyone in newborn care knows this. He's making a bureaucratic procedure out of something that 99% of people involved in the situation already know the facts on. And we wonder why health care costs so much.

[Erik]

Sure, educate. But this goes beyond education. Mandated lectures each time a mother requests formula and requiring a medical reason (i.e., maternal choice isn't a good enough reason)? That's not education. That's choice restriction, shaming and harassment, IMO.

It's akin to the anti-abortion lectures that some states require after a woman asks for an abortion. Awful, awful policy.

[Erik]

There is no doubt that breast feeding is clearly a better alternative to bottle feeding and that's how doctors should portray it, no?

They already do.

[DMT]

It's akin to the anti-abortion lectures that some states require after a woman asks for an abortion. Awful, awful policy.

Ding ding exactly what I was thinking.

[MrFurious]

Many women simply do not produce enough milk to breast feed. My wife went through hell when our first child was born. She tried to breast feed, but couldn't produce enough milk. She felt like a failure. He was starving and we didn't know until we had a lactation specialist consult with us.

[B-Fly]

Many women simply do not produce enough milk to breast feed. My wife went through hell when our first child was born. She tried to breast feed, but couldn't produce enough milk. She felt like a failure. He was starving and we didn't know until we had a lactation specialist consult with us.

My wife had the opposite problem. She was producing too much breast milk. It resulted in multiple breast infections and constant pain. Rather than breast feeding helping her to bond with her newborn, it resulted in her being unable to hold her baby against her chest because of the constant pain, and hours and hours of treatment after treatment for her breasts while I took care of the baby. She also had a very difficult time getting a latch, even though we hired a lactation consultant, and every attempted feeding resulted in the baby screaming and crying, my wife screaming and crying, and a whole lot of stress and misery. With our second child, we agreed that we would try to give colostrum in the hospital and then we would switch to formula and not look back. The whole family was much happier as a result. I don't regret that decision for a second.

[cardboardbox]

My wife had trouble making enough so we rented one of those hospital grade pumps and it helped a lot. We still had to supplement with one formula bottle per day out of 5-7 feedings though. After five months my wife had enough of it as she never wanted to breastfeed in the first place but was only doing so because I sort of talked her into it. I hope five months was enough to get the essential benefits of breast milk being switching to formula.

[baldgriff]

Does anyone think that being a lactation specialist would be a great job????

[B-Fly]

Does anyone think that being a lactation specialist would be a great job????

G-d, no. Breast feeding is often so stressful for new mothers, who on top of that have just been through the torture of labor and delivery and are now operating in a state of sleep deprivation and constant self-doubt/panic. I can't imagine it would be a fun job.

[B-Fly]

You should post the comments made by your Facebook friend. She's killing it and is absolutely right on the money. I especially liked how she called you out on your "hectoring" assertion, there B-Fox.

LOL. She is an advocate and blogger on pregnancy and maternity, so it's not surprising that she knows her stuff. Apparently the press has misrepresented what the initiative calls for with respect to hospitals. Here's a link to the City's own description of the basis for and components of the initiative:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/ms/initiative-description.pdf

Most of it appears designed to prevent hospital staff from defaulting to feeding formula to babies in the nursery, even where mothers wish to breast feed, as well as to restricting the formula company's marketing within the hospital setting. It does not appear, on its face, to require documentation of a medical reason for formula if the mother chooses to formula feed. It would, however, appear to eliminate the distribution of formula to women who choose to formula feed. Women who wish to formula feed would need to bring their own formula (and bottles?) to the hospital. It states that women who choose to formula feed but who cannot afford formula should be referred to WIC, a food and nutrition program for poor families. I'm not sure whether a new mother would be able to get formula via the WIC program at the hospital, but I guess if the mother refuses to breast feed, it would create a medical reason for the hospital staff to provide formula.

[Steve]

G-d, no. Breast feeding is often so stressful for new mothers, who on top of that have just been through the torture of labor and delivery and are now operating in a state of sleep deprivation and constant self-doubt/panic. I can't imagine it would be a fun job.

It continues to amaze me how any woman would willingly have a second child after what pregnancy and childbirth do to them.