Life Support: Got milk?
"If you're a working mother, it will likely go to waste
Wednesday, January 22, 2003,
By Linda M. Blum ,
A new study showing soaring rates of breast-feeding in the United States is being widely celebrated. The survey of 400,000 new moms in the journal Pediatrics found that 70 percent nursed their newborns before leaving the hospital -- the highest percentage in modern history.
Few also realize that even in sunny, liberal California the sight of a breast-feeding mother is considered unseemly. Although almost half the states, including California, have laws protecting a woman's right to breast-feed in public, contemporary cultural attitudes enshrining breasts as sex objects are rigidly resistant to change. (With the demand for breast-implant surgery also soaring, I guess we think breasts are meant only to be sex objects.)....
Earlier this year, in an upscale mall near my mother's home in Santa Monica, Calif., a woman was asked to stop nursing or leave. But you can see more skin every day at the beach or the 10-plex movie theater nearby.
Those of us in such white communities rarely stop to think what this oversexualization is like for black mothers. Even with today's high breast-feeding rates, black mothers remain less likely to nurse than white women. Public health officials have explained this gap by seeing black women as either less aware of the health benefits or less motivated to follow health advice. In my research, I have found neither to be true.
Besides what I view as a healthy skepticism to often-exaggerated medical claims, black women are already stereotyped in the United States as oversexed and irresponsible. The vulnerability to public exposure and censure they face is a very real danger. Most know that they cannot risk such exposure in the mall, and certainly not at work.
Until we have offered all mothers better options, let's not believe that the United States is such a pro-breast-feeding nation. We are such a wealthy nation, with more super-rich citizens than any other, that I wonder why we can't do better. In Europe, where months of paid leave are common, it is true that taxes are higher. But these nations also tax the rich far more and -- what an idea! -- make the well-being of mothers a social contribution.
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Linda M. Blum, author of "At the Breast: Ideologies of Breastfeeding and Motherhood in the Contemporary United States," teaches sociology and women's studies at the University of New Hampshire. She wrote this piece for Newsday." [Blum has crafted an excellent column pointing out the long row the US has to hoe before women are able to nourish their children without hardship. - JC]
Wednesday, January 22, 2003
Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Breast-Feeding 101 and 102 "BOOKS ON HEALTH,
By JOHN LANGONE, New York Times, January 21, 2003
Review of :
"The American Academy of Pediatrics New Mother's Guide to Breastfeeding," edited by Dr. Joan Younger Meek with Sherill Tippins. Bantam Books, $13.95.
"A century ago, a majority of American women breast-fed their infants, and more than half of all babies were still being breast-fed beyond the first year of life.
But as glass bottles, rubber nipples and formulas became available ? and as more women began working outside the home ? breast-feeding rates hit a record low.
Advertisement
Today, the contributors to this excellent guide say, about 68 percent of American newborns are nourished by their mothers' milk.
But again, conflicts with work and lack of support, along with concerns about breast-feeding, have forced many women to give up nursing early.
Of the American newborns breast-fed in 2000, the authors note, only about 31 percent were still nursing at 6 months, and fewer than 18 percent by a year...."
By JOHN LANGONE, New York Times, January 21, 2003
Review of :
"The American Academy of Pediatrics New Mother's Guide to Breastfeeding," edited by Dr. Joan Younger Meek with Sherill Tippins. Bantam Books, $13.95.
"A century ago, a majority of American women breast-fed their infants, and more than half of all babies were still being breast-fed beyond the first year of life.
But as glass bottles, rubber nipples and formulas became available ? and as more women began working outside the home ? breast-feeding rates hit a record low.
Advertisement
Today, the contributors to this excellent guide say, about 68 percent of American newborns are nourished by their mothers' milk.
But again, conflicts with work and lack of support, along with concerns about breast-feeding, have forced many women to give up nursing early.
Of the American newborns breast-fed in 2000, the authors note, only about 31 percent were still nursing at 6 months, and fewer than 18 percent by a year...."
Mom Charged for Drugged Breast Milk
Posted: January 20, 2003 at 9:02 a.m.
"PERRIS, Calif. (AP) -- Prosecutors have charged a 30-year-old mother of three with second-degree murder after investigators said her infant son died when he ingested methamphetamine through her breast milk.
The prosecution of Amy Prien for the death of 3-month-old Jacob Wesley Smith could lead to the first conviction of its kind in California, according to legal experts.
"She knew the drugs were dangerous, but it was more important to her to have the self-gratification," said Deputy District Attorney Michele Levine. "Responsibility for Jacob's death falls at her feet."" [Anedited version of this story was also filed by AP with the unfortunate lead sentence: "Authorities in California are accusing a
woman of killing her son through her breast milk." - JC]
Posted: January 20, 2003 at 9:02 a.m.
"PERRIS, Calif. (AP) -- Prosecutors have charged a 30-year-old mother of three with second-degree murder after investigators said her infant son died when he ingested methamphetamine through her breast milk.
The prosecution of Amy Prien for the death of 3-month-old Jacob Wesley Smith could lead to the first conviction of its kind in California, according to legal experts.
"She knew the drugs were dangerous, but it was more important to her to have the self-gratification," said Deputy District Attorney Michele Levine. "Responsibility for Jacob's death falls at her feet."" [An
woman of killing her son through her breast milk." - JC]
Monday, January 20, 2003
SoCal mom awaits trial after son ingests meth through milk"AP Wire | 01/20/2003 | Posted on Mon, Jan. 20, 2003
PERRIS, Calif. - Prosecutors have charged a 30-year-old mother of three with second-degree murder after investigators said her infant son died when he ingested methamphetamine through her breast milk.
The prosecution of Amy Prien for the death of 3-month-old Jacob Wesley Smith could lead to the first conviction of its kind in California, according to legal experts.
"She knew the drugs were dangerous, but it was more important to her to have the self-gratification," said Deputy District Attorney Michele Levine. "Responsibility for Jacob's death falls at her feet."
No trial date has been set, but authorities said they hope to begin next month. Prien faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted.
Prien has denied taking methamphetamine at the time of Jacob's death last year and said she is the victim of overzealous prosecutors.
"I'm not the person they say I am," Prien told the Los Angeles Times in an article published Monday. "And they know it."
Court documents alleged Prien, who is free on $100,000 bail, used a variety of drugs including PCP, LSD and methamphetamine.
"I never used speed when I was pregnant or when I was breast-feeding," Prien told detectives, according to court documents.
Prien said she believes a roommate may have been involved, although authorities said they have ruled him out.
"This has been very poorly handled," said Jacob's grandfather, Jack Haskins. "Amy is like any other kind of woman. She has her ups and downs. She's a little strong-willed. But she would never hurt those children."..."
PERRIS, Calif. - Prosecutors have charged a 30-year-old mother of three with second-degree murder after investigators said her infant son died when he ingested methamphetamine through her breast milk.
The prosecution of Amy Prien for the death of 3-month-old Jacob Wesley Smith could lead to the first conviction of its kind in California, according to legal experts.
"She knew the drugs were dangerous, but it was more important to her to have the self-gratification," said Deputy District Attorney Michele Levine. "Responsibility for Jacob's death falls at her feet."
No trial date has been set, but authorities said they hope to begin next month. Prien faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted.
Prien has denied taking methamphetamine at the time of Jacob's death last year and said she is the victim of overzealous prosecutors.
"I'm not the person they say I am," Prien told the Los Angeles Times in an article published Monday. "And they know it."
Court documents alleged Prien, who is free on $100,000 bail, used a variety of drugs including PCP, LSD and methamphetamine.
"I never used speed when I was pregnant or when I was breast-feeding," Prien told detectives, according to court documents.
Prien said she believes a roommate may have been involved, although authorities said they have ruled him out.
"This has been very poorly handled," said Jacob's grandfather, Jack Haskins. "Amy is like any other kind of woman. She has her ups and downs. She's a little strong-willed. But she would never hurt those children."..."
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