Ban the Breastfeeding Ads?

I first refer you to the article:
...discusses ads created by the Health and Human Services Department, depicting bottle-feeding as a sure route to diabetes and asthma, graphically.

Then to the fellow mommy:
...A nice summary. I tend to agree with Ms. Elliot's bloggings, but here I particularly feel that she hit the nail on the head.

So basically the Health and Human Services Department designed these ads, which can only be described as delivering a graphic and startling message: breastfeed, or your kid is going to get sick (you bad, bad mommy!) The ads show bottle nipples attached to an insulin syringe and an asthma inhaler. "You might as well hook up your baby's bottle nipple to THIS next, because that's what you're going to need (you bad, bad mommy!)" And hey, breastfeeding is important, right? And scare tactics work, right?
Formula companies lobbied to have these ads replaced with less harsh versions.

So, we've got the right outcome, for the wrong reasons, and business as usual, from D. C.

Like the anti-drug ads of the 90's on Saturday morning TV, I highly doubt the target audience in this case is going to be swayed. I personally know very few women who were on the fence (none). If a woman really isn't going to breastfeed, most of the time, she isn't going to breastfeed. Deal with it. And when it's failing, it's failing. Say what you want about women who choose not to breastfeed. Their baby, their breasts, their lives. I care not, and, like my take on other things people like to debate in political arenas (gasp!), I am decidedly pro-choice, i. e., who am I to tell other people what to do with their lives.

On top of their impotency, Ads like that, though made with the best of intentions, make women who couldn't breastfeed feel like CRAP on toast. Until recently, every time I'd gotten over the guilt, (and begun to enjoy the fact that my kid is strong and healthier by far than most) I'd get a nice little reminder from crap-sources like these ads. Or a friend who says, "of COURSE! I'm going to breastfeed!", as if the alternative was surely death. That kind of thing hits me square in the face, and starts a little more emotional self-flagellation, as penance for 'giving up'. I deserve it, I'm sure.

But here's where these ads do their real damage, in my opinion: OTHER MOMS. We see the 3 year-old with the paci in the supermarket, the boy with no sweater in October, or the newborn being bottle-fed - and we ATTACK. Maybe not out loud, maybe a whisper to a friend or husband. But we do it. Yes, you do, or you will, too, at times. Moms judge other moms. Perhaps pointing out another Mom's supposed failings makes us feel like a better mom ourselves (as calling someone else 'fat' helps make you skinnier, in girl world, thank you Tina Fey!) But ads that condemn the way that the majority of the country feed their babies is throwing fuel on the catty little fire. We add to the arsenal of judgment, we add to the guilt, we add to the worry and anxiety that a lot of moms wade through daily. Though only a low-level hum, it's there sometimes, for pretty much everybody. And it's all that kind of negativity - for lack of a better word - that keeps us from sitting back and enjoying our babies, while they're still babies, to the fullest.

PS - Basically, you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't, throughout motherhood.

• You're damned if you do buy that nice bouncy seat ("Can you believe how she spoils that baby and wastes her money?") and damned if you don't buy it ("It's only $40, how can she put a price on her baby's comfort?").
  
• You're damned if you do stay home ("She went to college for 4 years so she could quit her job and hang around the house all day?") and damned if you do go back to work ("Apparently her career is more important to her than that beautiful baby!").
  
• And worst of all, you're damned if you don't breastfeed, ("I can't believe she would give up on breastfeeding. It's so easy it's so much better for the baby! How lazy!") and - while you have a lot more social approval - you're paradoxically damned if you do breastfeed ("Does she have to feed that baby here? It's indecent! Shouldn't she go into the restroom or do it in the car or something?")

PS - no matter how I end up feeding my second child, I swear to God I will do it right at the table in a restaurant as much as possible, in full view of all the damners, whatever side they take aim from. Either way.

Also: "Mean Girls" rocked.