News

The Breastfeeding Center at Boston Medical Center is one of 15 community-based demonstration sites funded by the DHHS Office on Women's Health, to support the Campaign, which has received several awards, most recently from La Leche League International. The Campaign, with the slogan, Babies Were Born to be Breastfed, is designed to increase breastfeeding awareness, and to promote exclusive breastfeeding for six months.

"It seems that the Campaign messages have really gotten out, and seeing and hearing more about breastfeeding has made it more acceptable to people everywhere," said Anne Merewood, Research Director for the Breastfeeding Center, and a public health researcher at Boston Medical Center. "It's interesting that men have really come on board. Perhaps in the past they've thought this was a women's 'thing' - but Dad's support is critical when a mother breastfeeds."

The Campaign was launched in June 2004, and relied on Ad Council public service announcements on radio, TV, and in the print media, to get its message across. The tracking report, based on telephone interviews across the US, showed that those who had seen at least one of the Campaign's TV ads were more likely to agree that breastfeeding decreased a child's risk of ear infections, obesity, respiratory illness, and diarrhea. More results showed:

· 75% of people who had seen the TV ads disagreed that formula is as good as breast milk, compared to 59% of those who had not seen the ads

· 59% of women who had seen the TV ads were more likely to be comfortable breastfeeding in public, compared to 39% of those who did not see the ads

· 73% of women who had seen the TV ads were more likely to be comfortable seeing other women breastfeed their babies in public compared to 55% of those who had not

These results are particularly interesting in the light of recent controversy over Barbara Walters' comments about breastfeeding in public on ABC's TV show, the View.

Breastfeeding-based events are planned all over the country during World Breastfeeding Week. Clinicians (doctors, nurses) and patients - including supportive 'breastfeeding Dads' will also be available to speak to the press at BMC, during World Breastfeeding Week.

~To learn more about World Breastfeeding Week and the National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign, visit www.WomensHealth.gov (rated #1 among all breastfeeding Web sites by the Journal of Human Lactation)

or call the Helpline at 1-800-994-WOMAN (9662), Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., EST

VBAC/Cesarean Prevention

Why should VBAC work in America? American obstetrics doesn't work! What can you even begin to say about a country with an American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) conference entitled "Promoting Medically Unnecessary Cesarean Sections"? We rank 24th in the world: 23 other countries have better birth outcomes than we do. And the countries with the best outcomes use midwives and encourage out-of-hospital births.

Many obstetricians didn't understand certain aspects of successful VBAC - excellent nutrition, the absence of fear, the importance of the energy in the birth room, and faith in the birth process. Many of them told women they had to have their babies by 40 weeks, or they would be induced. Since more and more women were having/demanding VBACs, that was where the money was, and doctors began to get more comfortable with the idea. For doctors, VBACs equaled more time with less money, less power and less control. OBs who were attending VBACs were merely "baby catchers" - something any ol' midwife could do; performing surgery was lucrative and awe-inspiring. They could schedule cesareans at a time that was convenient for them, instead of possibly being disturbed in the middle of the night. They couldn't understand what was so important about a vaginal birth, and they oftentimes used scare tactics to get women to agree to schedule a repeat cesarean. They accused women who wanted normal deliveries of compromising the health and well-being of their babies for their own aggrandizement and at the expense of their babies. Of course nothing could be further from the truth.

The more comfortable they became with VBAC, the more risks they began to take. Before, no one ever induced a VBAC woman, and certainly no one every used Pitocin, but now, Pitocin was used frequently. There has been an increase in uterine rupture with the advent of induction and Pitocin. I find it incomprehensible and wicked that instead of understanding how obstetrical directives create problems and decrease the safety of VBAC, obstetricians in the United States believe that the danger is inherent within VBAC. In fact, it has come to our attention that instead of taking the time to suture the incised uterus in layers, doctors have been taught a "short cut" technique that uses only one layer. This method compromises the integrity of the scar and predisposes a woman to greater incidence of uterine rupture. So now they can tell you with a straight face that VBAC is dangerous: they are making it so.

Life has risks. Not everyone who plans a VBAC will have one, and not everyone who has one will have a perfect experience. Some women who desperately want VBACs end up with repeat cesareans. But after almost 30 years of researching, writing, counseling and teaching cesarean prevention and VBAC, I know that most women can have safe, gentle, sacred, delicious VBAC births, and that they are safer than repeat cesareans. It is a travesty that the majority of sections and repeat sections are unnecessary. It is a tremendous sadness when women have been so indoctrinated with fear about birth that they choose numbness and technology to "get the baby out" rather than their own power and efforts.

~ Nancy Wainer

excerpted from "A Butcher's Dozen"

Midwifery Today, Issue 57

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Photo © J Leatherman, New Life Photography.

News

Boston, Massachusetts - According to a new survey released today, more Americans in 2005 endorse breastfeeding, and are comfortable with women breastfeeding in public, than one year ago. Men in particular are more savvy about breastfeeding. The National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign surveyed almost 1000 people before and after the Campaign's 2004 launch, and came up with the following results:

· 69% of men were comfortable seeing a baby breastfed in public in 2005, compared to only 59% of men in 2004

· 63% of men said they would be willing to have their own baby breastfed in public in 2005, compared to just 53% of men in 2004

· In 2005, 67% of women and 62% of men felt the best way to feed a baby was to give only breast milk - up from 60% (women) and 50% (men) in 2004

· In 2005, 59% of women and 65% of men agreed that babies should be breastfed exclusively for the first 6 months, up from 55% (women) and 53% (men) in 2004.

Breastfeeding acceptance up for World Breastfeeding Week 2005!