Is the Breast Better?

July 13, 2006 — -- Do you cringe when you see a woman breast-feeding in public? Or do you pass judgment when you see a woman buy milk formula for her newborn? Americans have mixed visceral reactions to breast-feeding, and a recent breast-feeding ad campaign has brought those reactions to a roiling boil.

The U.S. government spent $2 million on an ad campaign to promote breast-feeding. One of the ads shows a pregnant woman logrolling; another shows her riding a mechanical bull. Both ads ask: "You wouldn't take this kind of risk with your baby, so then why would you take the risk by not breast-feeding?"

America has one of the lowest breast-feeding rates of any industrialized country. That could be due, in part, to how uneasy Americans get when it comes to seeing a woman nursing in public.

"Whenever I see a mother breast-feed in public, I always go over and say to her, what a wonderful mom you are," said Amy Spangler, a lactation consultant who was an adviser on breast-feeding ad campaign.

Spangler, along with scientists, doctors and even the baby formula industry, all agree the breast is best. Studies show giving babies breast milk significantly reduces the number of infectious diseases they suffer.

"We teach immunizations, we teach car safety, we teach mothers to use bicycle helmets, but we don't teach anything to mothers about breast-feeding," said Spangler. "Yet it's an integral part of what we really should be doing as part of the healthy lifestyle."

But critics of the campaign say it should have focused on the health benefits of breast milk rather than on the risk of not breast-feeding. Some women who chose to use baby formula said the negative framing of the ad campaign touched a nerve in them.

Jen Spitzer, a mother who used formula, not breast milk, said the ad made her angry because it was too black and white. "I think it would make someone who can't breast-feed or somebody who chose not to breast-feed feel guilty because it's saying that you are putting your child at risk if you choose to formula feed," said Spitzer.