Interesting article today on Newswise.com.

A study out of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center examined why black women are less likely than white, Hispanic or Asian women to breastfeed. Just for comparison, in 2006,  77% of white mothers reported engaging in some breastfeeding, versus 60% of black women. Not a huge gap, but significant enough to merit some research. The Cincinnati study examined the attitudes regarding breastfeeding of a diverse group of women, in the hopes of finding some insight into this racial disparity.

What they found is actually pretty fascinating:

The study concentrated on African American; white, non-Hispanic; Hispanic; Asian pregnant women’s intentions to breastfeed. After comparing the ethnic groups, there was a significant difference in breastfeeding intentions between African American women and all other races.. African American women were just as likely as women of other ethnicities to be comfortable with the idea of breastfeeding their baby. However, they were far more comfortable with the idea of formula feeding their baby as compared to women of other ethnicities, and it was greater comfort with formula use that explained differences in breastfeeding plans.

Can you guess where this is heading? Wait for it….wait for it...and ahh, here it is:

“The study results tell us that public health campaigns to promote breastfeeding must also include messages regarding the risks of formula feeding. For example, we know that formula fed infants, even here in the U.S., are twice as likely to suffer an ear infection and 2-3 times more likely to develop gastroenteritis as compared to exclusively breastfed infants,” (lead study author) Dr. Nommsen-Rivers said.

Once again, this all comes down to perspective. See, I read these findings and think, huh. I wonder what this says about the strength of black women to resist the guilt and insecurity so common in new moms. I wonder if there is less pressure in the black community to be perfect. And I wonder if these studies accounted for economic factors…because it might be a necessity to think less negatively about formula if you have no choice but to go back to work a few weeks after your kid is born. I wonder if by making breastfeeding easier for all women (offering better and cheaper support, pumps, longer maternity leaves, free visits with lactation consultants, etc, etc, same old arguments I always use) it would help narrow this divide. I wonder if the study results are actually reflecting that the fear/guilt machine, which has already been chugging away for the past 4 or 5 years, doesn’t have as much of an effect on women of color, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Or at the very least, this might suggest that some women are too busy dealing with real problems – problems that we could be putting our attention and money towards solving – to worry about a few extra ear infections.

The last thing I think is, “Gee, it seems black women are being just a little too rational about the cost-benefit analysis of formula feeding. Let’s start a campaign to scare the beejesus out of them!”

Final analysis? Interesting study, predictable result.

Flipping through the channels the other night, I stumbled upon the tail end of “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution“. For those who haven’t seen or heard about the show, Oliver, a British celebrity chef, has taken residence in “the unhealthiest town in America” (Huntington, West Virginia). On Oliver’s own website, they describe his “revolution” as such:

Jamie’s challenge is to see if he can get a whole community cooking again. He works with the school lunch ladies and local families to get everyone back in the kitchen and making tasty meals with fresh ingredients – no packets, no cheating. He’s started a Food Revolution: to get people all over America to reconnect with their food and change the way they eat.

I love this idea, but the 15 minutes I saw of the show kind of turned me off. Oliver comes across as well-meaning, but incredibly naive about America. He comments morosely about how depressing things are over here, with our processed foods, our cheap ingredients, our lack of fresh vegetables… all true. But there is so much more to it than that. There’s socioeconomic/cultural/racial/religious/political divides that differ in every state, for criminy sakes – it’s not as easy as teaching some cafeteria workers how to include the four food groups. Plus it seems a tad hypocritical for a Brit to be condemning us for our unhealthy nation. They aren’t doing so great either, if we’re being honest.

While I respect the idea of Food Revolution (and don’t want to completely write it off, considering I only saw a snippet of the first episode), watching Oliver struggle to connect with the people of Huntington got me thinking about ethnocentrism. And that led to a stomachache, when I realized I was guilty of the same brand of tunnel vision when it came to a different (albeit related, if you believe Newsweek) issue.

Last week, I posted about an article from the Philippine Star detailing a partnership between Mensa and the organization “Children for Breastfeeding”. Basically, these groups are coming together to promote the supposed IQ-boosting effects of breastfeeding, in the hopes of raising the abysmal breastfeeding rates in the Phillipines. There were some comments made in said article that bothered me deeply, but rather than address them calmly, I let my snark get the best of me.

When I received an email from Custer Deocaris (who was prominently mentioned in my post), a few nights later, I wasn’t surprised. He was angry at what he called my “insulting comments about (their) advocacy” and wrote at length about the research backing his claims. We emailed back and forth for a few days, wherein we argued about specific studies on IQ and breastfeeding (his reference is indeed the Kramer/Belarus study, which I suspected – and we simply have different interpretations of the results) and the “right” way to promote breastfeeding.

I can’t say we agreed on much, but throughout this communication, something ugly kept gnawing at my insides. I felt like a bully. From what Deocaris explained, there are those same socio-economic/cultural/racial/religious/political divides (plus a hefty pinch of dictatorship) in his country that I’m so fond of citing when critiquing other well-meaning “outsiders”. I was not only taking cheap shots at some poorly translated quotes, but hand over the sash and crown, because I was being Ms. Ethnocentric USA in the process.

Now, I can’t condone using something as weak as the few studies associating a few extra IQ points with breastfeeding to try and convince mothers to nurse. But the fact is, I don’t live in the Philippines. I don’t know their culture, so it was premature of me to comment so harshly on the article before doing some research on breastfeeding and formula policy in their country. And beyond that, I feel like it was an arsehole move to make fun of the language of non-native English speakers; I’m sure if I had to give a quote in say, Spanish, I would come off sounding pretty convoluted too, despite my stellar scores on the AP test fourteen years ago (not that I’m bragging or anything…).

What’s sad about all of this is the reason why I felt the need to comment (snarkily) on what was going on half a world away. Why should the actions of a group of Filipino lactivists worry me so?

Let’s put it this way: I was considering going so far as to delete the post in question, until I logged onto Twitter and saw a bunch of tweets about how Mensa is supporting the assertion that breastfeeding boosts IQ. A few of them link to that same Phillipine Star article. It’s setting precedent. That’s the problem. Unfortunately, the Phillipines isn’t Vegas; what happens there doesn’t stay there. And it’s not just the Philippines – what happens in Belarus informs the AAP’s stance on breastfeeding, for example. There’s little respect for the intricate differences between countries, between cultures, when it comes to breastfeeding policy. Because what’s good for a tribal woman in Africa should be good for a working woman in New York City, right? I wish it weren’t like that, but it just so often is.

I want to apologize for my tone and dismissive attitude towards Dr. Deocaris and his compatriots. From his emails, I can tell you that this man is unbelievably passionate about his cause; while I can’t agree with his methods, I do respect his drive. I honestly hope that the people of the Philippines will embrace breastfeeding. I just wish that they would do so because of what a wonderful gift breastfeeding can be, rather than being influenced by a fear of damning their kids to a life of sub-par intelligence.