{"id":5426,"date":"2016-08-04T12:23:04","date_gmt":"2016-08-04T19:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/?p=5426"},"modified":"2018-09-09T23:02:13","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T06:02:13","slug":"lets-give-moms-a-break-when-it-comes-to-breast-feeding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/archives\/5426","title":{"rendered":"Let&#8217;s give moms a break when it comes to&nbsp;breastfeeding"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s World BreastFeeding Week and UNICEF and WHO are running full-steam ahead with their campaigns. Yet, while breastfeeding is an ideal, this kind of campaign is adding extra pressure on new parents, particularly moms, if they can&#8217;t or decide not to breastfeed based on their needs and situations.<\/p>\n<p>Breastfeeding is an ideal &#8211; and this campaign clearly wants people to support it &#8211; yet for most moms and dads who&#8217;ve gone through the realities of &#8216;natural&#8217; feeding, it&#8217;s not such a rosy picture. There&#8217;s the difficulties of latching, the pumping, the sleepless nights,  the constant social pressures of equating breastfeeding to being a good parent.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"fr\" dir=\"ltr\">L&#39;Unicef s&#39;attire la col\u00c3\u00a8re des internautes pour ses tweets pro-allaitement <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/SbGPpgeoP8\">https:\/\/t.co\/SbGPpgeoP8<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3MFhhVOZwS\">pic.twitter.com\/3MFhhVOZwS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Lib\u00c3\u00a9ration (@libe) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/libe\/status\/760805085068787712\">August 3, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>While there&#8217;s been some <a href=\"http:\/\/next.liberation.fr\/sexe\/2016\/08\/03\/l-unicef-s-attire-la-colere-des-internautes-pour-ses-tweets-pro-allaitement_1470030\">alternative perspective<\/a> on the week-long campaign, this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seleni.org\/advice-support\/article\/breastfeeding-and-postpartum-depression\">recent study<\/a> published in the <a href=\"http:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007%2Fs10995-014-1591-z\">Maternal and Child Health Journal<\/a> highlights that women with unmet expectations about breastfeeding may be at higher risk for postpartum depression (PPD).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Research shows unmet breastfeeding expectations increase the risk of postpartum depression <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/oqqFjBJitx\">http:\/\/t.co\/oqqFjBJitx<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/worldbreastfeedingweek?src=hash\">#worldbreastfeedingweek<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Seleni Institute (@selenidotorg) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/selenidotorg\/status\/628615450369355776\">August 4, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>According to Maria Iacovou, PhD, a sociologist at the University of Cambridge in England and an author of the study, the benefits of breastfeeding is not new information. &#8220;But what is new \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and urgent from a public health perspective \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is that there is increased PPD risk among women who plan to breastfeed and then are not able to.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>The study suggests that women who wanted to breastfeed and did not may be in the most vulnerable position, possibly because they feel disappointment and guilt in addition to not getting the physiological benefits of breastfeeding.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If moms who are depressed fail at breastfeeding, that is another strike against their perceptions of being a good mom.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The study ultimately underlines the importance of providing expert breastfeeding support to women who want to breastfeed, but also to provide compassionate support for women who had intended to breastfeed, but who find themselves unable to.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been told that World Breastfeeding Week is trying to target developing countries because breastfeeding is the best way to provide infants with the nutrients they need. If this is the case, <a href=\"http:\/\/who.int\/mediacentre\/events\/2016\/world-breastfeeding-week\/en\/\">the message could be more specific<\/a>, otherwise it might inadvertently be perpetuating social pressures leading to unnecessary stress and anxiety for parents who have the choice to decide how they want to feed their child. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s World BreastFeeding Week and UNICEF and WHO are running full-steam ahead with their campaigns. Yet, while breastfeeding is an ideal, this kind of campaign is adding extra pressure on new parents, particularly moms, if they can&#8217;t or decide not to breastfeed based on their needs and situations. Breastfeeding is an ideal &#8211; and this &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/archives\/5426\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Let&#8217;s give moms a break when it comes to&nbsp;breastfeeding<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124],"tags":[431,277,438,420],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5426"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5426"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5488,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5426\/revisions\/5488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}