Everybody knows Mayor Bloomberg thinks he is everyone’s nanny, but now he thinks he is their wet-nurse too!
Bloomberg wants to use the power of government to coerce women into breastfeeding by treating formula like a controlled substance in hospitals. I kid you not.
The nanny state is going after moms.
Mayor Bloomberg is pushing hospitals to hide their baby formula behind locked doors so more new mothers will breast-feed.
Starting Sept. 3, the city will keep tabs on the number of bottles that participating hospitals stock and use — the most restrictive pro-breast-milk program in the nation.
Under the city Health Department’s voluntary Latch On NYC initiative, 27 of the city’s 40 hospitals have also agreed to give up swag bags sporting formula-company logos, toss out formula-branded tchotchkes like lanyards and mugs, and document a medical reason for every bottle that a newborn receives.
While breast-feeding activists applaud the move, bottle-feeding moms are bristling at the latest lactation lecture.
“If they put pressure on me, I would get annoyed,” said Lynn Sidnam, a Staten Island mother of two formula-fed girls, ages 4 months and 9 years. “It’s for me to choose.”
Liberals hate choice and they hate you. You stupid breeders cannot possibly be trusted with your own decision. You need to be led.
What a boob.
July 30, 2012 at 11:53 am
As I type, I'm nursing my 7th child, but in an hour, he'll get a few ounces of formula because we've gotten off to a rocky start. I guess he qualifies as a medical reason to get that "evil" stuff. Have to say, though, that locking up formula is a pretty misogynist thing to do. Or maybe men just don't understand how painful breastfeeding can be at first, especially if the newborn is tongue-tied, as my little guy was. And if mom goes back to work 6-8 weeks later, what then? And, and…I really thought it was my body, my choice? It's bad enough I gave up caffeine and wine for nine months…now I have to worry if the broccoli is giving the baby colic?
July 30, 2012 at 12:58 pm
Actually, his reasoning isn't off and is also adopted by UNICEF. See, giving free formula samples in the hospitals has been shown to greatly decrease breastfeeding rates, even when the mum planned to breastfeed from the start. It's not about forcing women to breastfeed,but ensuring women's efforts at breastfeeding aren't sabotaged from the very start. For women who truly need to supplement or completely use formula, then it's still available, just not given out to everyone in the hospital.
July 30, 2012 at 1:18 pm
Agree with Susan. I'm not sure on what the whole "lock it up" thing is about, but I know the formal is just as good as breastfeeding message sent by the free give away bags is bad news. No one should feel bad for formula feeding if they need to. Thank God there is a good option for our babies. However, there's no controversy whatsoever regarding the fact that breastfeeding is best and formula is not even a close comparison benefit wise.
It is estimated that the immunological benefits of breastfeeding alone could save the U.S. $13 billion in healthcare and other costs each year if mothers breastfed their babies for six months exclusively. That's no small number IMO.
And from a religious perspective it's pretty obvious that, assuming everything is functioning properly, we were made to nurse our babies. Again not something that should guilt women who it doesn't work out for. But nursing should be the default whenever possible, not something that is considered going above and beyond.
July 30, 2012 at 1:28 pm
"For women who truly need to supplement or completely use formula…."
No, it is not up to you or Nanny Bloomberg to determine if I "truly need" to bottle feed my baby. It is up to me. Formula samples given to new parents is giving them a choice, options. And the sample comes in handy once you are home, struggling on day 3 with no breast milk and the baby is hungry. This approach is forcing breast feeding on parents. My children breast fed for 3 months and then it was on to formula and baby cereal and they were sooooo happy. Sorry but the benefits of breastfeeding are oversold. What really counts is that it is Mom or Dad doing the feeding/holding and Mom or Dad is the primary care giver. It is the parenting that goes along with the feeding that makes the difference in physical, emotional and cognitive development.
July 30, 2012 at 1:37 pm
Ya know, the stuff coming out of the mouths of people like Bloomburg, Pelosi, Reid, etc. makes me wonder if I might not be wrong about forced sterilization. Maybe their parents shouldn't have allowed to reproduce…
July 30, 2012 at 3:24 pm
Why are you such a bigoted Dumbass?
July 30, 2012 at 3:51 pm
I'm trying to work out the angle. I think that, in many ways, liberals prefer parent substitutes as part of their efforts to replace the family with government-run daycares from birth up through age 18. One reason I had to keep Sesame off of my street was because of the anti-family indoctrination: bottles and daycare shown as much as the birdie whose parents live in separate nests. Not that intact families don't use formula and daycare — Sesame just never seemed to show any other families in the diversity spectrum.
So, I don't think this is actually about supporting breastfeeding mothers. There's something else going on here. Liberals don't want Mommy spending time with baby, breastfeeding him. They prefer other methods of parenting. Just ask Ann Romney.
July 30, 2012 at 3:54 pm
Artificial baby food … … The contraception of infant nutrition.
I really don't get the difference between using artificial baby food, and artificial family planning. To my view there are more similarities than there are differences.
July 30, 2012 at 4:25 pm
FWIW, the American Academy of Pediatrics pretty much just recommended as practice what Bloomberg wants to implement in NYC. So he's not a looney toon out of step with current medical advice.
Also, I don't get the Catholic outrage against Bloomberg here. Pope John Paul II spoke of the natural good of breastfeeding a baby, and spoke of the need for social scientists and others to find ways to encourage and support breastfeeding mothers to increase breastfeeding rates.
Many hospitals–including in NY–have already voluntarily done away with the formula "swag bags". Their breastfeeding rates have risen as a result. The message implicit in giving away the formula bags even to mothers planning to breastfeed is that a little supplementation isn't going to hurt (it CAN hurt supply and diminish length of breastfeeding), or, worse, that formula is equivalent to breastfeeding. It isn't. Ample research has shown that it isn't.
Particularly for a newborn in the first days after birth, colostrum (the first mother's milk) is like liquid gold. It contains such immunological and nutritional benefits that it is akin to medicine for the baby. It is a doctor's responsibility to inform a mother of these benefits and to inform her that depriving her baby of colostrum *of her own choice* is not a healthy decision. If a woman cannot breastfeed her baby for whatever reason, then formula should be there as the backup plan (after other options are tried supplemental nursing system, donated breastmilk…).
The US has abysmal breastfeeding rates; this is an actual public health concern. Let's drop the "nanny state" rhetoric and start caring about what is best for babies (and mothers).
July 30, 2012 at 5:20 pm
It would seem to be a good idea to NOT give out formula sample bags. Breast feeding is such a good thing for the child that doing something to purposefully undermine it in a healthy woman seems wrong.
However, it's also a good question to ask if government regulations are needed for this. Because now you have a government body deciding what's best for all women and babies without considering the individual cases. It sounds like the formula will be completely unavailable to women who might want it but not need a prescription.
We too often turn to another gov rule or regulation to solve problems that might be better solved at a lower level.
July 30, 2012 at 6:36 pm
“If they put pressure on me, I would get annoyed,” said Lynn Sidnam, a Staten Island mother of two formula-fed girls, ages 4 months and 9 years. “It’s for me to choose.”
The pressure right now is on, but by the Formula companies. And you are right, women who want to breastfeed ARE annoyed.
July 31, 2012 at 12:37 am
The breast feeder people are really annoying. Feed your own baby and mind your own business concerning other women's.
July 31, 2012 at 11:10 am
I've nursed 6 babies for extended periods and while I'm all for encouraging more moms to breastfeed, the mayor has gone too far. What I find amusing are people like Whoopi Goldburg's reaction. They were perfectly fine with Bloomberg cracking down on transfats, salt, and large drinks (all of which I happily consume, even while nursing) but then he goes over some imaginary line drawn in the sand and they all jump up and say, "Whoh Bud! Stop right there. That's enough government intrusion in our lives!"
How about the mayor stop telling any person, large or small, what they should eat?
July 31, 2012 at 6:58 pm
The issue is not bottle v. breast it is whether this is the proper role of government. It is not. I would like Mr. Bloomberg to keep his hands off my boobs.
August 1, 2012 at 6:05 am
@Ann Roth: LOL.
Personally the statement "infants should be breastfed barring a valid medical reason" seems 100% indisputable to me.
But…enforced by the coercive power of the state? Seriously?