battling breastfeeding taboos

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Battling breastfeeding taboos Lindsey Pilcher
Of the Suburban Journals Jefferson County Journal
Jennifer Uhley of Pevely breastfeeds her child everywhere she goes, including the mall. She wears a camisole underneath her shirt so she can be discreet about it, but she says people still give her weird looks.

"I had a teenage guy come up to me and ask if it was pleasurable," Uhley said. "I told him to take a flying leap."

Members of the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program want to educate mothers and mothers-to-be about the benefits of breastfeeding, but they also want to tear down the social taboos.

"The more people do it, the more socially acceptable it is," Michelle Sanders, Arnold, said. "It's like, ‘This is how it is, get over it.'"

This was one of the topics of discussion at the Community Breastfeeding Fair Wednesday, Aug. 10 at the Arnold Community Center. Sponsored by WIC, the fair provided women with the chance to speak to counselors, nurses and nutritionists about breastfeeding.

Susan Stanze, breastfeeding coordinator for WIC, is quick to point out the health benefits of breastfeeding as opposed to using formula. The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding for at least the first year, she said. The health benefits, including a strengthened immune system, follow the child into his or her school years.

For Stanze, the choice is a no-brainer.

"It's not just Pepsi versus Coke," she said.

Sanders agrees, saying that breastfeeding is a healthy lifestyle choice she supplements with a vegetarian diet and plenty of exercise.

"We knew it was what we wanted to do, to raise him as healthy as possible," Sanders said. "It says something that he's never been sick. He hasn't been tainted by artificial foods and that tainted lifestyle that we live."

For more women to breastfeed, however, society needs to encourage the process instead of looking down on it.

"We have to get past the cultural perceptions of what our bodies are for," Stanze said.

Uhley, a mother of two boys, knows from personal experience breastfeeding is beneficial for babies. When she had her first child at 16, she didn't know how to breastfeed. She used formula and the baby had several ear infections and suffered upper respiratory problems. When she became pregnant with her second child, she decided she needed to know more.

"I didn't have anyone showing me in the beginning," Uhley said.

She started attending WIC meetings when she was six months pregnant with her second child, and the 10-month-old has been exclusively breastfed since he was born.

"It's a lot of fun because when they look up at you and smile, you know they're getting what they need," Uhley said.

Uhley is a stay-at-home mom, like many of the women who attend the weekly WIC meetings. It's difficult for working women to exclusively breastfeed, Stanze said, but employers can benefit from allowing women time and a place to pump their breast milk for the following day.

"Women who exclusively breastfeed spend less sick days at home with the baby," Stanze said. "Employers can try to accommodate moms to express breast milk. She can take five or 10 minutes out of her day to express milk so the caregiver can provide the baby with the milk the next day."

Even though working can be a barrier to breastfeeding, Stanze said there is another reason women stop breastfeeding exclusively.

"The main reason women give it up is because they perceive they don't have enough milk," Stanze said.

Uhley perceived she had a milk deficiency when she began breastfeeding, but she's over that now.

"The more they nurse, the more you make," Uhley said. "It's supply and demand."

Elizabeth McRoberts of Fenton prefers breastfeeding for the convenience. She said breastfeeding makes traveling with a baby much easier. She can just pull into a parking lot when her 8-month-old Hannah is hungry, and then be on her way.

Like Uhley, McRoberts said not everyone is comfortable with breastfeeding in public, but she will continue to breastfeed for the health and convenience benefits, as well as the economic incentives. Her husband is relieved that the family doesn't have to spend money on formula.

If people don't like it, they can take a flying leap.

For more information about WIC services and programs, call 789-2686.