The
World Breastfeeding Week is once again, in the media- paper, online, radios. It
came into my notice since last year when I was in my village and I was in the
early stage of pregnancy. Since my village lack most of the modern
technologies, it made me stick to the radio and its FM stations. Bingo! All the
FM channels were full of the World Breastfeeding Week fundas. I listened to
each program every day, even though the programs were basically repeating the
same thing. I didn’t want to miss anything, in case if they air new info. The
programs were very informative and useful for me to clarify myths regarding
breastfeeding, especially for my situation at that time.
Whenever
there is anything about breastfeeding, I recall an interesting moment from my school
days. There used to be a TV-ad in Nepal television by famous Nepali actress,
Karishma Manandhar. The advertisement basically showed the actress breastfeed
her daughter and say it’s good for her daughter’s health. I always found this
advertisement embarrassing and useless. Embarrassing, may be because of my age
at that time and useless because, I understood breastfeeding as a universal
truth. My question was, “what would you feed a baby, if not mother’s milk?” For
my young mind it was as simple as “sun rises in the east.” Thus I never
understood why it was so important to broadcast breastfeeding in a national
television. And then last year, I became mother on 29 December 2014. And I
could not succeed to breastfeed my daughter. Yes, my daughter is a
bottle-feed baby.
However,
I didn’t even think I would be depending on formula for my daughter. During my
pregnancy period, my mind had a clear statement, as it used to be during the
TV-ad, that there is no other option than breastfeeding for my upcoming baby. My
decision became stronger after listening all those programs on the occasion of
World Breastfeeding Week last year. Secretly, I was feeling proud of myself,
for my determination to breastfeed.
Also, while reading pregnancy guide books, I always skipped the chapter
of bottle-feeding. I was really happy to find nursing bra in Bhat Bhateni as I
did not expect it in our market. I bought it and packed in my maternity baggage
before leaving for hospital. Despite all these positive thoughts and actions
and with all my conscience, I regret to say that I failed to breastfeed my
baby.
Breastfeeding
did not came out as an easy task as I thought, at least not to me. It turned
out to be a nightmare. I applied all the suggestions from the doctors, nurses,
my mom, my sisters and friends but it didn’t help. During my seven days stay in
the hospital, the on-duty nurses tried helping me to breastfeed the baby but in
vain. However, with my strong determination, I kept on struggling with my baby
to make her suck from the breast. We did not feed her from the bottle as per
the doctor’s advice, as she said that the baby would become used to with the
bottle, instead we used spoon for feeding formula. But nothing helped. My
daughter could not latch on the breast. After five weeks of everyday battle
with my daughter I gave up my determination to breastfeed and moved to full
fledge formula feeding. (I will write another piece on my breastfeeding
struggle and guilt).
So,
the World Breastfeeding Week is back. I am again reading the same thing that I
listened to the radio programs last year. And I strongly feel that these
information and these supports (that they claim to have) are incomplete. After
my failed attempt for breastfeeding, I can tell the Breastfeeding agenda as
advertised in the media is troublesome. I also don’t understand who is the
target of this World Breastfeeding Week? Or what is the reason behind this
celebration? Person like me- Little bit educated, living and working in a city,
have access to TV, newspaper, internet? But don’t you think person like me with
all these access can give one hour lecture about breastfeeding and its benefit?
However if the audience is women with less privilege than what I mentioned
above, do they even think about other than breastfeeding? I asked elderly,
young and rural mothers, whoever came in my contact, if they know about other
than breastfeeding. They replied, only in the cases if the mother dies during
delivery. This means the average mother do not have alternative to
breastfeeding. And I don’t think any mother would compromise with their baby’s
health. Plus there is financial burden if they want to opt for
breastfeeding. And I can tell it really
makes a big difference in your monthly budget.
In
my understanding, breastfeeding could be choice only if there is some serious
problem or obstacle between mother and the baby at least for average person
like me. However, the agencies are just focussed on the benefits of breastfeeding
as if people are unaware of it. They are not relating breastfeeding with actual
problems that are faced by the mothers. The breastfeeding agenda has to widen
its scope than what is being highlighted. The programs like World Breastfeeding
Week should not limit in awareness rising but drill into practical problems and
its solutions. An average mother like me, who failed to breastfeed despite so
much effort, can easily list these problems:
- Are you fit for
breastfeeding? Is your breast well-developed for enough lactation? Is your
nipple baby-friendly?
- Do you need to learn
specific techniques or buy some added tools for simplifying breastfeeding?
- Do the mothers have
enough support at home, hospital if they face problem? Or who/where is the
support system to get help for breastfeeding?
- If you are working
mother, does your organization have breastfeeding friendly policy? How long do
you get maternity leave (paid/unpaid)? Is it sufficient in specific to you?
- And major question, what
should you do or what could be best option if you could not breastfeed your
baby (by choice or by compulsion)?
The
list could go on, but these above mentioned issues are the most pertinent among
others. I was not aware of these questions as a new mother but now I know what
were the things that I should have prepared. And I bet very less to-be moms are
prepared with these issues. But we lack, even the smallest support system. I
didn’t even know whom to contact when my baby did not show hunger sign or not
able to suck. I tried finding out breast/lactation consultant but could not
find a confident one. I am thankful to my sisters and friends who were the only
consultant that I could lean on for any kind of problem that I was experiencing.
So for me World Breastfeeding Week is of no use if they are going to
appear in the same way as they are. They must update their information and fact sheets as per the audience and should establish hot-line/helping desk in order to connect to the real problems-solutions. This would be more practical and helpful for the new mothers.
