Barriers to Normalized BreastFeeding

Since August is National Breastfeeding Awareness month, I felt this urged to write about it since I am one of thousands of moms out there who supports normalized breastfeeding.

I chose to write this in English rather than my own language (Tagalog) hoping that moms, mom to be, dads, and dad to be members of this platform will be able to read this article as well. My purpose is to spread the awareness of normalized breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding is crucial for a baby so that they grow healthy. But admit it or not, there are still many mothers out there that do not breastfeed due to various reasons.

Lack of knowledge.

• Formula Milk has more nutrients than Breastmilk

  Most of mothers specially to those how are on remote areas do think that formula fed babies are more healthy than breastfeed babies. They are under the impression that formula milk has more nutrients as compared to breastmilk. This belief is wrong.

• New mothers are uncertain what to expect about breastfeeding.

  Even though breastfeeding is often described as "natural", it's still a body language that needs to be learned by both the mother and the newborn. I myself have encountered mothers that breastfeed their babies for up to 2 weeks of postpartum only.

  Common reason on why they quit is:

  --> low breastmilk supply

  --> sore or cracked nipples

There are multiple factors affecting the effectiveness of breastfeeding but I believe the main factor is the position.

While there are lots of tutorial video available in you-tube on how to properly hold a baby to be able to achieve a perfect latch. However, mothers of a family struggling in their living (in other words, poor and poorest of the poor) and mothers in the remote areas do not have access to these platforms. Education about breastfeeding is not always readily available. And that's one of the reason why most of the first time mothers quit breastfeeding cause of the difficulties they've experienced in the first two weeks after they gave birth.

Social Support

• Husband's Support

  I believe, husband play a vital role in mother's decision to continue breastfeeding or not. In my case, my husband is very supportive whatever my decision is. When I decided to breastfeed my baby, he prepares me a meal that can help boost my supply. That simple act from my husband motivates me more to continue breastfeeding.

  I also experienced having very low milk supply specially on the first 3 days of my postpartum, I don't have milk at all. I can't see any single droplets when I tried to hand express.

  I even experienced bleeding nipple cause of the cracks due to improper latch position of my baby. But my husband is very supportive and even bought me a breast pump when I cannot bear the pain due to my cracked and bleeding nipples.

  But it did not make me and my husband quit with our desire to breastfeed our baby. And we surpassed all of it.

  On the other hand, negative attitude of the husband or any of your family members (commonly mother/mother in-law) can be a trigger for a new mother to quit breastfeeding.

• Friends' influence

  New mothers with friends who are able to breastfeed successfully are more likely to choose breastmilk over formula milk. But then if most of women's friends are unsuccessful with breastfeeding, they might influence mother's decision to switch to formula milk instead.

• Discrimination against breastfeeding in public.

  I personally experienced this. You can see in the eyes of people around you, on how they look at you that they are not comfortable having you around, breastfeeding your baby in front of them. This kind of situation makes us feel embarrassed.

• Employment

  Here in the Philippines, Mothers are now entitled to 105 days of maternity leave. Returning to work of an employed mother is a significant factor for them to quit breastfeeding. Employed breastfeeding mother's common barriers to continued breastfeeding are:

  --> nature of work . Luckily, in my case, I am allowed to take 2 lactation break on my whole 8 hrs of shift. So each lactation session is of 20 minutes long.

  --> no proper lactation room in their work area . Some mothers end-up expressing breastmilk in restrooms. But there's always a way. They can actually use nursing cover while expressing their milk even in public or in their workstation.

  

  

  --> milk storage availability in work area (i.e refrigerator). In my case, I used a cooler bag I bought from Shopee for 600 PHP only.

I myself can testify how effective breastfeeding is in terms of boosting child's immune system. My youngest son who is now 41 months old and is still breastfeeding has a strong immune system. I brought him to a doctor (for illness reason) only twice. First was March last year. He had cough and cold making him very clingy and very uncomfortable. Second is just last month, for anti-rabies vaccine after he was bitten by a cat.