Street roots., December 20, 2013, Page 9, Image 9

street roots
D ec. 20, 2013
Mother's milk
For years, formula has been an easy option fo r new mothers, but institutional attitudes
are changing to encourage breastfeeding among low-income and minority families
BY JASMINE ROCKOW
S TA FF W R IT E R
espite being one of the wealthiest
nations in the world, the United
States is one of the sickest. Obesity
is one of the fastest growing chronic
conditions both globally and nationally,
affecting 15 percent of American adults and
18 percent of American children, according
to the Centers for Disease Control. It’s a
contributing cause to other serious diseases
such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and
some types of cancer. And these diseases
are killing people at an ever escalating rate.
The World Health Organization predicts that
diabetes will be the seventh leading cause of
death worldwide by 2030.
Chronic disease has become more than a
public health crisis in the U .S. It’s not just
that we are getting sicker, it’s also who is
getting sick more often and who is dying at
disproportionate rates from diseases that we
now understand to be preventable. Looked
at through this lens, chronic disease is as
much about inequality as it is about public
health.
One culprit comes in an innocuous — and
usually subsidized package: baby formula.
Doria Thiele is a clinical assistant
professor at Oregon Health & Science
University. Thiele is also a certified nurse
midwife studying lactation, the breastfeeding
relationship and the role of breast milk.
“Human milk is ideal for human babies
and when we introduce other things like
formula or foods too early, we can disrupt
the metabolic pathways. We have such a
crisis with obesity and diabetes and
cardiovascular disease in our country. And
we know that some of the aspects of
formula that babies can be exposed to,
D
increase their likelihood of developing those
diseases,” says Thiele.
A 2009 meta-analysis published in
Advances of Experimental Medicine and
Biology indicate that formula feeding does
in fact increase a person’s likelihood of
becoming obese by 20 percent. That isn’t
surprising, considering that corn syrup is
one of the main ingredients in most popular
brands of formula.
Public health officials are trying to
encourage more women to breastfeed, but
convincing some women to ditch formula
presents a huge hurdle.
“We need to be really careful because
there’s a lot of people who can’t even meet
their own basic needs,” says Thiele.
Although 90.2 percent of Oregon mothers
initiate breastfeeding, only 24 percent
manage to continue breastfeeding their
babies through 6 months of age. Rates are
lower in low-income communities of color,
especially for African American women,
Latinas and Native American women.
Consequently, illness, disease, and infant
mortality rates are higher for these groups
than the general population. In the U .S ., a
woman’s ability to nourish and bond with
her baby has become an economic privilege
denied to a growing number of women who
lack the resources of time and money.
Surgeon General Regina Benjamin issued
a call to action to support breastfeeding in
2011 and the American Academy of
Pediatrics asserts that breastfeeding is a
matter of public health, but the United
States is one of the only countries in the
world where infant formula companies are
free to aggressively market their products.
In 1981, the World Health Organization
adopted the International Code of Marketing
of Breastmilk Substitutes. As of 2011, 103
countries have enacted some kind of
legislation prohibiting the marketing of
infant formula to the general public but the
U .S. has taken no legislative action on the
code.
Formula companies inundate hospital
maternity wards with free formula, free
branded supplies like diaper bags and even
pamphlets on how to properly breastfeed,
complete with instructions on how to switch
to formula — just in case breastfeeding
doesn’t work out.
For low-income women, the temptation to
formula feed doesn’t end at the hospital.
The federal Special Supplemental Nutrition
Program for Women, Infants and Children,
or WIC, is a recognized champion of
breastfeeding in Oregon. They offer free
lactation support and breastfeeding peer
counseling to low-income moms. In addition
to those services, federal requirements
mandate access to free formula once the
baby reaches 1 month of age.
In 2011 the U .S. Department of
Agriculture released a study on how W IC’s
contracts with formula companies impacted
the infant formula market. They found that
whatever company holds a sole-source
contract with WIC also dominates formula
sales by an average of 84 percent.
Three of the four formula brands offered
by Oregon WIC without medical
documentation are made by Similac, which
is owned by Abbott Laboratories. Abbott is
a global pharmaceutical company with an
entire division devoted to diabetes care
products.
“The pharmaceutical companies that
produce formula are incredibly smart,” says
Helen Bellanca, Maternal Child Program
Manager at Health Share. “They know how
to get their product out there and they know
that if a baby starts drinking formula while
they are still in the hospital after being
born, then it’s likely the mom is going to
continue to choose that same brand when
they go home.”
But there has been a resurgence.
Encouraged by the surgeon general’s call to
action and the supportive policies of the
AAP, breastfeeding rates are slowly
beginning to creep up. Oregon in particular
has been a leader in the breastfeeding
movement. And advocates say baby-friendly
hospitals are one of the most exciting and
promising developments for families in
Oregon.
he Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative got
its start in 1991 by the WHO and
U N IC E F. It’s a global initiative — any
hospital in the world can become baby
friendly as long as they submit to the
International Code of Marketing of
Breastmilk Substitutes and the Ten Steps to
Successful Breastfeeding. It’s a long and
often expensive transition for hospitals to
make, but proven to dramatically increase
breastfeeding rates and other birth-related
health outcomes.
Oregon currently has five certified baby
friendly hospitals, none of which are in
Portland. However, five of the Legacy Health
System hospitals in the Portland/Vancouver
area are on their way to becoming baby-
friendly. They have been implementing the
steps over the past three years and hope to
T
See BREASTFEEDING, page 11