Breastfeeding billboard

by Angie Felton (Subscribe to Angie Felton's posts) Apr 28th 2008 9:45AM

Categories: Pregnancy & Birth, Development

I saw a billboard the other day that read: Babies are made to be breastfed. My first response was "Babies are made to poop and pee everywhere too!" and the second thought was "What a stupid billboard."

How is a giant visual guilt trip next to an interstate going to change things for the women with a low milk supply? Show the overly self-conscious mother the error of her formula feeding ways? Is bullying women by telling them how selfish they are for not spending their lunch hours in the supply closet with their breast pump really the best way to inspire woman to nurse their babies?

Formula isn't evil. Women who opt not to breastfeed aren't bad parents. Educating people on the benefits of breastfeeding is one thing, but this approach is a huge turn-off, at least to me, and I breastfed all four of my babies.

Comments (44)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

Trish 4-28-2008 @ 9:59AM

So it's ok for formula companies to advertise and to push their product, but anyone who attempts to counter-advertise or push breastfeeding is in the wrong?

the goddess anna 4-28-2008 @ 10:08AM

Your last paragraph is perfect. Thank you.

Linda 4-28-2008 @ 10:10AM

I used to share your opinion, even though I breastfed both my babies. However, is the alternate view OK? Should formula companies be prevented from advertising their product because it offers the counter view to breastfeeding? Of course not, because we live in a free and capitalist country. Therefore, if formula companies can advertise, I think breastfeeding advocates should be able to also. I actually think this billboard isn't offensive, compared to others I've seen. I should note however, that no woman who either chooses to or is forced by circumstances to formula feed their children, should feel guilty. Mothers have enough things to feel guilt about (it's part of the job description) without this added stress.

Cacklin Rose 4-28-2008 @ 10:12AM

I agree with the previous poster.

Cathy 4-28-2008 @ 10:18AM

I have to disagree with you. Until women can breastfeed their babies without being treated like men in trenchcoats, we DO need campaigns promoting breastfeeding.

Monica 4-28-2008 @ 10:35AM

I agree with Cathy. I think the billboard is more directed towards improving the silly "feed your child in the restroom so you don't offend me" attitude that society needs to lose.

Sandyone 4-28-2008 @ 10:41AM

Oh, how I wish I hadn't just popped in here today before signing off. But I did.

I just don't see how this is guilt inducing to the woman who is doing the best she can/what she knows is right for her child. If someone is doing what's best for her kid, guilt is not an issue. Passing guilt, yes, but certainly not this terrible, paralyzing guilt to which you allude. Regret? Heck, yeah. We all have it for various reasons, but if an advertisement can cause so much angst, the problem lies with the viewer and not the ad.

The billboard is not there to induce guilt or to bully anyone. It's there to let everyone (men, included) know that babies are made to breastfeed. This billboard is for the future. It's for the 20-something chick who sees me nursing my baby at the mall and wrinkles her nose in disgust that I'd let that baby suck my tit, ew gross! It's for the husband who is to become a father, yet knows little about mothers and babies. It's for the pushy grandma who thinks her daughter/dil shouldn't exclusively nurse because *she* wants to feed the baby. It's for the mom who didn't have enough support to continue nursing her first, but wants to try again with her second.

It's really not there to bully or scold anyone. There is an incredible amount of just plain wrong information out there. Breast feeding ads have an awful lot to correct and counteract. This ad doesn't particularly move me or impress me, but it's hardly inflammatory, bullying or intentionally guilt-inducing.

Stay tuned for our next Mommy War topic...circumcision!

Wendy Mac 4-28-2008 @ 10:44AM

I agree with Cathy! Formula fed babies can be fed in a restaurant without getting glares from other customers. Formula companies put advertisements in all of my new baby welcome kits, coupons in magazines, etc. so why can't we similarly promote breastfeeding? I'd like to be able to nurse my children without getting those nasty glares. I'd like to be able to pump my milk at work without having to sit in that supply closet you mentioned.

I say, bring on the promotion. Promote both formula AND breastfeeding. What's right for one Mom, isn't right for EVERY Mom, but just like a formula feeding Mom should be supported, I should be similarly supported for nursing.

MsC 4-28-2008 @ 10:46PM

As someone whose milk never came in no matter what I did, I do find the constant 'you are a terrible person' vibe extremely disappointing, but I've learned to just let it go. At least that billboard's message is keeping with the 'breast is best' argument as opposed to the 'by the way, if you don't breasfeed, your kid is doomed to be diseased and dumb' line.

ame s 4-28-2008 @ 5:57PM

I was lucky. My milk came in right away, both of my daughters were "naturals" at the latch on.
A sweet friend of mine had the same problem you did. She drank plenty of fluids and ate a proper diet but could not produce. For two days her lil guy would nurse for a couple of minutes then arch his back and howl as if he'd been scalded. The little guy was starving! She called me crying the first time she gave him a bottle of formula. The baby wasnt't crying, he was full and happy.
Getting babies the nurishment they need is what is important, whether it comes from the breast or the bottle.

Gabby 4-28-2008 @ 11:00AM

Well, originally I came here to agree with Angie, because those breastfeeding ads really irk me. I, too, breastfed my children, and the difficulty and the obstacles I had to overcome to be successful at it were quite great. But then, upon reading the other responses, I think maybe my irritation was misdirected. Maybe those ads are made not for us mothers, but for all the immature men out there who tell us what we're doing is disgusting, and for all the mother-in-laws who look at us like we're some kind of freaks for feeding our babies in front of them. So, thank you, posters. My heart is now a little less heavy.

Katie 4-28-2008 @ 11:10AM

We had similar posters in my community when I was breastfeeding my son. I thought they were really intimidating, even for a breastfeeding mom. They need to just put stats out there, not bully the community,\.

Kara 4-28-2008 @ 11:39AM

Yeah, I totally didn't take it as a dig against formula feeding. Society is so messed up in regard to breastfeeding that people like Bill Maher (spelling?) are equating it to masturbation. It's ridiculous. Society has forgotten what breasts are for.

I'm all for the billboard. (And my daughter gets formula and breastmilk and I tend to feel guilty about that)

Nicola 4-28-2008 @ 12:10PM

What Cathy, Monica, and Kara said. It has nothing to do with guilting people who make an active choice to formula feed. It is all about making breastfeeding a normal act, a part of every day life, something that is NOT shameful. I breastfed my son for almost four years and though I was never shy or private about it, I really did wish that we lived in a society where I didn't have to think about the disapproval, the stares, the weirded out public. Damn it people, THAT IS WHY WE HAVE THEM! My son still calls them "nursies" and I don't plan to correct him. Maybe if we all started calling them nursies instead of breasts, society might get the point?

Tash 4-28-2008 @ 4:01PM

Amen!!!

From another Mommy nursing an almost 4 year old.

LS 4-28-2008 @ 12:14PM

I agree with everyone....

On one hand, I hate the whole "militant" breast feeding movement - those who abuse others for formula feeding regardless of the reason - and my first reaction to this billboard was associated with those people.

On the other, I understand that education is needed for those who would ask mothers to leave when they're feeding their children in public.

But I think we can ALL do our little part to help "educate" those people by exercising a bit of common sense. Don't apologize for breast feeding, but don't flaunt it, either. Don't plop down in the middle aisle of a grocery store and 'whip it out', requiring others to step over you (this came from an actual story here on PD, maybe bck when it was Blogging Baby...). Just be discreet and do it, perhaps under a light blanket. If people glare, glare right back. Then get over it, because there will always be those who are ignorant, and NO amount of billboards, PSA's, or flyer campaigns is going to fix it.

mamaloo 4-28-2008 @ 12:21PM

Angie, I think your neuroses are showing. You took a factual statement and added a whole mess of your own personal baggage.

Babies ARE born to breastfeed. It is the physiological norm of the human animal to eat the milk created by its mother. Every single instinct they have is about establishing breastfeeding. In fact, this biological imperative extends to the new mother who must have the baby begin breastfeeding quickly after birth in order to stimulate the expulsion of the placenta, stop the uterus from bleeding freely, abet bonding with the baby and shrink the uterus to pre-pregnancy size.

In our modern age, we have developed ways to cope with the interruption of this process (because OBs in the early part of the 20th C thought they knew women's bodies better and began effing with the natural process in the name of progress and when that started causing problems, had to develop procedures to substitute for the natural processes), such as active management of stage 3 labour (oxytocin injection into the thigh, cord traction, manual uterine compression). Some people choose to or find themselves only able to feed with an alternative food source.

Those are the facts. Everything else is your own personal BS.

Nicola 4-28-2008 @ 1:46PM

AMEN!

Groovymarlin 4-28-2008 @ 12:42PM

Wow. Mommy Wars, here we come. ;-) OK so while I sort of agree with your thoughts on this one, I have to say I don't think the billboard is all that offensive. Speaking as a mom who did not breastfeed (though I tried mighty hard and still have plenty of guilt about not being able to), I don't think I'd find that billboard offensive, because I agree - babies ARE meant to be breastfeed (it's just not always possible).

Mamaloo I hear where you're coming from but I don't think it's necessary to insult Angie.

And Angie - did ParentDish put you up to this just to drive more traffic to the site this week? (Only half kidding!)

Meagan 4-28-2008 @ 1:00PM

That's what I was wondering Cathy... the assumption seems to be that this campaign was against women who've elected not to breast feed (or been unable to), but I took it as a campaign for the freedom to breastfeed in public (and on airplanes without being thrown off). I wonder, Angie, was there more to this billboard that put it into the more aggressive anti-formula camp?

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