The Right to breastfeed 关于母乳喂养的权利
Many women who would like to breastfeed are not given the right to decide about breastfeeding their baby or continuing breastfeeding their baby. In fact, many mothers are being told that there is no difference between breastfeeding and artificial feeding and thus are not, in fact, being given the information to make an informed choice. What woman would choose formula feeding if she were told that there is considerable evidence that mothers who breastfeed have a lower incidence of breast cancer, ovarian cancer and possibly uterine cancer and that the longer she breastfed the lower the risk?
很多想要母乳喂养宝宝的女性并没有被赋予相应的权利来决定是否母乳喂养或继续母乳喂养她们的宝宝。事实上,很多母亲被告知,母乳喂养与人工喂养之间没有区别。因此,实际上母亲们在做出选择时并没有得到真实的信息。如果有人告诉她们,有足够的证据表明母乳喂养的妈妈们以后患乳腺癌、卵巢癌和子宫癌的概率比较低,而且母乳喂养的时间越长,这种风险越小,那她们还会选择配方奶粉吗?
Am I kidding? Who is going to stop a mother from breastfeeding?
真的是我在说笑吗?是谁想要阻止妈妈进行母乳喂养?
The truth of the matter is that mothers do not seem to have the right to breastfeed and are forced, by health professionals, judges and child protective agencies not to breastfeed from the earliest days after the birth of their baby as well as to stop breastfeeding if they have started.
事实上,母亲们似乎并没有母乳喂养的权利,医疗从业人员,法官和儿童保护机构迫使她们不能在婴儿出生后的最初几天母乳喂养她们的宝宝。即使母乳喂养已经开始了,他们也会让妈妈们停止。
Even when things are going well, mothers are frequently told they must add cow’s milk to the baby’s diet, presumably because “there is nothing in breastmilk after a year”. They are often told they must stop breastfeeding altogether for this very reason, or because their child will be “overdependent” or incredible as it may sound, because breastfeeding past a certain age is abuse. This is not commonly said, but one child psychiatrist in France did make this statement to a newspaper. “One does not share the breast: to extend breastfeeding past 7 months is without doubt sexual abuse”. The mind boggles.
即使母乳喂养进展顺利,母亲们也经常被告知她们必须在婴儿的饮食中添加牛奶,大概的说辞是“母乳在一年后什么营养都没有了”。 她们经常被告知必须停止母乳喂养。理由多种多样,或者基于上述理由,或者会说孩子会因此变得 “过度依赖”或其它不可思议的理由,或者说母乳喂养过了一定年龄是对儿童的虐待。 最后一种说法不是很普遍,但法国的一位小儿精神科医生确实在报纸发表过这种观点:“乳房不能够被分享:延长母乳喂养超过7个月毫无疑问是性虐待。”真是令人难以置信!
Mothers who had wanted to breastfeed and had trusted the health care system to help them prevent problems with breastfeeding or overcome problems with breastfeeding, are frequently left feeling guilty for not breastfeeding, feeling that they “failed” or feeling that they “couldn’t” breastfeed for medical reasons. They do not know that the health system actually undermined their breastfeeding and so they blame themselves, not the practices around labour and birth and after the baby was born that destroyed their breastfeeding. A lot of formula feeding by mothers who had originally intended to breastfeed would never have been necessary had the mothers been given the correct information that their medical condition or use of medication had not required them to stop breastfeeding. In addition, the mother’s fear of the baby starving or his health being compromised are used as scare tactics to get mothers to consent to formula feeding and to shake her resolve to breastfeed. If health providers actually knew how to know a baby is well latched on and how to know a baby is getting milk from the breast even in the first few days after birth, then the health provider would know if the breastfeeding is going well or not and would know how to help the mother and baby if the breastfeeding is not going well, before the baby gets into trouble. Because they do get milk in the first days, even with the first latch, as shown by the pause in the chin as the baby opens to the maximum, where the pauses are rather short but present. This 24 hour old baby shows quite definite pauses in the chin showing he is taking in a lot of milk. And the health providers usually don’t know how to increase the flow of milk to the baby if that is necessary.
母亲们不知道实际上正是医疗机构破环了母乳喂养。她们责怪自己,而不是分娩过程和婴儿出生后的医疗机构的做法破环了她们的母乳喂养。如果母亲们能够得到正确的信息,说明她们的医疗状况或使用的药物不需要停止母乳喂养,那么原本打算进行母乳喂养的母亲们是毫无必要用大量配方奶喂养她们的宝宝的。此外,母亲对婴儿饥饿或健康状况受到威胁的恐惧被用作吓人的手段迫使母亲们同意配方奶喂养,并且动摇她们进行母乳喂养的决心。如果医护人员知道如何判断一个婴儿的含乳情况,如何判断一个婴儿即使在出生后的头几天也从乳房中获得了乳汁,那么他们就会知道母乳喂养的状况好不好。他们就会在婴儿遇到问题之前,在母乳喂养进行的不顺利时知道如何帮助母亲和宝宝。因为婴儿们在最初的几天,甚至出生第一天,的确可以从乳房喝到乳汁,即使是第一次含乳。如视频当婴儿的嘴巴张到最大时,下巴出现暂停里显示的,暂停时间相对较短但确实存在。这个24小时大的婴儿,他的下巴可以看到相当清晰的暂停,表明他正在喝到大量的乳汁。医护人员通常也不知道在需要时如何增加乳汁流向宝宝的速度。
The medical professional’s knowledge of breastfeeding is, in general, so poor that if the slightest breastfeeding problem arises, the first thing many mothers will hear from a large majority of doctors is “give the baby formula” or even “stop breastfeeding altogether”. Mothers are often forced to supplement, or stop breastfeeding altogether, not infrequently in cases of slow weight gain, with a threat of the child protection services taking away the baby if they don’t comply with “doctor’s orders”. This is appalling because the doctors who would do this, without referring to someone expert in management of breastfeeding problems, often haven’t the slightest notion of what is going on and what can be done to improve the situation and depend only on the baby’s weight. And weights are unreliable as a way of evaluating the adequacy of breastfeeding.
医务人员对母乳喂养的了解总体来说很差。即使是最微不足道的母乳喂养问题,很多母亲从大多数的医生们那里听到的首先就是“给宝宝配方奶”,甚至连同“停止母乳喂养”。母亲通常被迫添加补充物或同时停止母乳喂养。在婴儿体重减轻时,这种情况不少见,还伴随着来自儿童保护部门的威胁:如果不服从“医生的命令”,他们会把婴儿带走。这是令人震惊的,因为会这样做的医生并在没有把病人转介给处理母乳喂养问题的专家。他们常常对于出现的状况以及怎样改善没有丝毫的想法,仅仅依靠婴儿的体重做出诊断。把宝宝的体重作为评估母乳喂养充分性的手段是不可靠的。
It is clear from our experience with many thousands of mothers having come to our breastfeeding clinic during the past 33 years, that much can be done to help the mother and her baby who is not gaining weight satisfactorily. With a little good help, the mother could carry on breastfeeding exclusively. However, in only a small minority of cases do the mothers actually get the help they need because the mother and baby are not referred to someone who can help, and, unfortunately, that is not the pediatrician, who should know, but only rarely does know.
过去33年来数以千计的母亲来到我们的哺乳诊所就诊,我们从中得到的经验让我们很清楚,有很多措施可以帮助体重增长情况不尽如人意的宝宝和她们的母亲。只要得到一点帮助,母亲就可以实现纯母乳喂养。然而,只有少数情况下母亲才能得到所需的帮助。这是因为母亲和婴儿没有被转介给可以提供帮助的人。遗憾的是,可以提供帮助的人并不是儿科医生。虽然他们应该知道,但很少有人知道如何提供这种帮助。
Sometimes the solution is easy. The way the baby is latching on can be adjusted so that the mother no longer has sore nipples and the baby gets more milk from the breast with this adjustment of the latch.
有时候解决方案很简单。调整宝宝的含乳姿势妈妈的乳头就不再疼痛了。而且调整含乳姿势可以让宝宝从乳房得到更多的乳汁。
Another way of adjusting the latch is by releasing a baby’s tongue tie. Sometimes the effect of releasing the tongue tie is dramatic in increasing the baby’s intake of breastmilk. Quite often using breast compression will increase the baby’s intake of milk enough so that the baby does not need supplementation.
调整含乳的另一种方式是剪开婴儿的舌系带。有时候,剪舌系带的效果在增加宝宝母乳摄入量方面很惊人。很多时候使用乳房按压技巧可以增加宝宝的摄入量并达到充足的水平,宝宝就不需要添加补充剂了。
But, true, sometimes it’s not so easy. However, even if the baby needs to be supplemented, the baby can be supplemented at the breast with a lactation aid at the breast. This preserves the breastfeeding whereas supplementing with a bottle, the usual way recommended by health professionals, most often ends up with the baby refusing the breast.
有时候问题确实不是那么容易解决。即使婴儿需要添加补充剂,也可以通过哺乳时用哺乳辅助器来添加。这种方式保留了母乳喂养。而医务人员通常推荐的用奶瓶添加的方式往往会导致婴儿最终拒绝乳房。
Need help in the Toronto area? Make an appointment with International Breastfeeding Centre