For decades, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended breastfeeding for its various health benefits to the baby and the mom. It is also cheaper and safer than formula milk. Recently, the parents were caught off-guard by the formula milk crisis. The shortage left parents scouring for milk, prompting the White House to import formula milk from other countries to ease the lack of supply.
Parents complain about the skyrocketing price of milk online. Many are forced to dilute their remaining formula milk or prepare homemade milk so they can stretch their supply.
Despite its disadvantages, why do more women opt for formula milk over breastmilk?
According to Deutsche Welle (DW), these are some of the reasons:
1. Moms find breastfeeding difficult after birth, but hospitals are not "baby-friendly."
The Africa Population and Health Research Center in Nairobi, Kenya, surveyed the informal settlements in Nairobi. They found that only two percent were exclusively breastfeeding their babies despite women not being able to afford formula milk. The women used cow's milk or foods like porridge to feed their babies before they were six months old.
Antonina Mutoro, a maternal and child well-being researcher, attributes the lack of breastfeeding in the settlements to not knowing much about breastfeeding at the hospital after giving birth.
After birth, most mothers or health providers would say she does not have enough milk, so the option is to give the baby formula milk. She noted that the structure to promote breastfeeding is not in place in most hospitals, even if hospital staff in pediatrics of gynecology knows the benefits of breastfeeding. Strained with workloads, doctors and nurses often do not train new mothers to breastfeed but give the babies formula milk instead.
2. Hospitals lack hands-on training for breastfeeding.
According to Rafael Perez Escamilla, one of the authors of the WHO report, women did not always receive support from hospital staff on how to breastfeed. Escamilla says that this may be because most medical nursing schools only receive two hours of breastfeeding training throughout their education. Without sufficient training, health care providers lack the skills to teach women how to breastfeed. The work is often passed on to breastfeeding peer counselors or lactation consultants, often unavailable in hospitals.
Escamilla added that lactation consultants are often not paid for by the public health system and are only available to moms who can afford them.
3. Influence of formula milk producers.
In 1981, the Milk Code banned formula marketing to prevent women from getting discouraged in breastfeeding, NCBI says. However, milk companies continued aggressively marketing their products online through methods that did not exist before the WHO adopted the Code. The marketing strategies have doubled the sales of milk formula.
4. Lack of breastfeeding-friendly spaces at work.
In Germany and many European countries, women are allowed to take a year of paid leave after birth; hence breastfeeding time and place are not a matter of concern. In other countries, however, women are not granted any paid time off from work after pregnancy. Some women also find it difficult to pump milk between work as there is no space to breastfeed. The situation pushes women to opt to give their kids formula milk instead.
5. Moms do not have enough milk for health reasons
According to News Logic, Lala Prada Streithorst's family in Colombia pressured her to breastfeed. However, she found it difficult to produce milk as she had just had gastric bypass surgery, and she found it difficult to drink lots of fluid. She was not producing enough milk. She felt guilty and anxious about it but decided to feed the baby 80 percent formula and 20 percent breastmilk. In her fifth month, she decided to provide her baby formula milk exclusively to ease her stress. The baby is now a healthy five-year-old.
