More on Why Breast Isn't Best
"Breast is best" is a topic that I have wrote extensively on over the years, including here and here. But as I get closer to my December 7 training of "When Survivors Give Birth", I wanted to re-visit it again.
If you're a provider, your job is to serve others. You are there to support them in their wants ands needs.
Your job is not to foist your beliefs on your patients.
"Even" if those beliefs are grounded in "best practices" (like "breast is best"), new research of evidence-based information. Because of your training, experience and specialized knowledge, it can be easy to forget that people are at the root of your work. Behind the science are people.
The bottom line with "breast is best" is this. Until we have:
milk sharing programs;
donor milk programs that are actually free;
access and education for all families who want to breastfeed;
paid leave;
culturally appropriate / trauma-informed lactation educators;
...”breast is best” is false because breastfeeding is, in fact, a privilege.
Until the above rights exists for everyone (including the right to say "this isn't for me" or "I don't want to") without feeling shamed, "breast Is best" isn't truth. It should not be the "company line "or the public health mandate.
Your client or patient needs to see you as their advocate. But if you assume you know what they need. If you charge in with knowledge but leave empathy at the door, they will turn away from you. And when your patients turn away from you, when they don't trust you, your work is all the harder.
Behind every patient is a person. Someone who is an expert on themselves. Find out what they need and want and act from that knowledge, not what you think they need or what your training dictates.
