Gender Equity, Co-Parenting and Infant Feeding Choices

Jessica Pratezina, MA, is a Ph.D. student in Interdisciplinary Studies (Child and Youth Care; Sociology) at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Her doctoral research studies gender equality, father involvement, and early family formation.

Research shows that a father’s positive involvement significantly impacts every domain of their child’s development. Less attention has been paid to how a father’s involvement can improve a mother’s health, well-being, and especially relationship satisfaction. Not every happy, healthy family wants or needs a dad (like lesbian couples or single mums). But when a father is an expected part of family life, they can make a world of difference not only to his children but to his partner. In particular, when couples share childcare and household responsibilities equitably, the benefits to a mum can be significant.

Yet, gender equality isn’t one of the topics parents are encouraged to discuss during their parenting transition. In between learning how to clip those impossibly tiny newborn fingernails and piecing together cribs that seem to require an engineering degree to assemble, talking about how to keep childcare and housework tasks fair and equal isn’t something most couples are supported to do.   

 Gender equality is also not usually discussed as a factor influencing parents’ feeding choices. When I worked as an infant development specialist, I was taught to ask all sorts of questions about a mother’s feeding plans. The intention was to guide (or possibly guilt) the mum into choosing exclusive breastfeeding. 

I was never taught to ask a mum how she wanted to involve the baby’s dad in feeding and how the different feeding options might support or hinder an equal sharing of the baby’s care.

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A Nurse Speaks Out About The Emotional Distress Parents Endure From Mandated Exclusive Breastfeeding Policies

“The sight and sound of babies crying out for food and fluids are why I decided to speak out. Babies are denied food and fluids to promote exclusive breastfeeding.”

As a mother-baby nurse, I’ve seen many preventable episodes of emotional distress for families in my thirty-year career. Unfortunately, The emotional distress increased significantly when the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative was implemented at my hospital. Some episodes of emotional distress are unforgettable, so I felt compelled to speak out about them, hoping to bring about the much-needed change to protect newborns from hunger and maternal mental health.

Mothers are incredibly vulnerable after giving birth, as their bodies transition physically and hormonally. They have a new life to take care of while recovering from birth and require compassionate, respectful, and individualized care. However, the Baby-Friendly breastfeeding protocol is one-size-fits-all and does not allow individualized care. Mothers must follow the BFHI protocol regardless of how they feed their baby or how complicated their birth was. We know as health care professionals that no protocol can be safe and effective without individualized care.

 Evidence based medicine cannot replace clinical judgment or account sufficiently for the complexity of individual cases. The limitations of EBM must be acknowledged and addressed so that it can be used effectively and without compromising patient care. -Mark R. Tonelli, MD, MA

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Listen to Fed is Best Co-Founder Talk About Her Son’s Breastfeeding Complications

Come tune in and listen to a podcast where Fed is Best Co-Founder, Christie del Castillo-Hegyi talks with Hayley Zimak of “Growing Up: Baby” about her breastfeeding story, the birth of the #FedisBest movement, and what needs to change in parent-infant feeding education to ensure the safety of every child.

Listen to the Co-Founder's story and why Fed is Best

Nurses Quit Because Of Horrific Experiences Working In Baby-Friendly Hospitals

Photo Credit: Victorian Agency for Health Information

We regularly receive messages from nurses, physicians, LCs, and other health professionals. They express their concerns while asking for help and patient resources. They tell us their stories and they need support and direction on what to do about unethical and dangerous policies they are forced to practice. We collected their stories and are beginning a blog series of health professionals who are now speaking out about the Baby-Friendly Health Initiative and the WHO Ten Steps of Breastfeeding.

Dianna Talter, Pediatric Emergency Department Nurse

I am a pediatric emergency department nurse traveler and sometimes, I worked on the mother-baby unit. I will never work on a mother-baby unit again because of the terrible conditions that mothers and babies are forced to endure because of the “Baby-Friendly” (BFHI) protocol!

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Italian Doctor Talks About Her Daughter Starving In A Baby-Friendly Hospital And Clinic Under The Care Of IBCLCs

I gave birth to my daughter three months ago (vaginal delivery) after prolonged labour. I had been ill the week before, unable to walk, stand, or sleep (I had been to the emergency room several times for pain in my left iliac fossa; they ordered exams, but no diagnosis came up), so I was already exhausted prior to birth. I chose a baby-friendly hospital (two hours of skin-to-skin contact after delivery, no nursery, no doctors unless strictly necessary) because I wanted, if all the clinical criteria were fine, a less medicalized experience with a midwife.

My second night was awful, as my baby cried desperately and was attached to my breasts all night long. I even called the midwives because I was so tired, but they reassured me saying that everything was going just fine, so I just endured for the good of my daughter. To be honest, I was already skeptical by my prenatal course teachers with their motto ”breastfeeding is the best for babies’ and mothers’ health.” As a doctor, I knew that formula works just fine in western countries for term infants with almost no repercussions on the child; but I felt so overwhelmed after delivery that I needed to trust the professionals—I needed not to be my daughter’s doctor.

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