The Risks of Not Breastfeeding for Mothers and Infants

tencat · Feb 14, 2010

All fine and dandy....if your boobs actually MAKE milk.....mine did not. I have a 7 year old who was formula fed and she's a smart cookie, very healthy, and a healthy weight. So I guess we're the few that did ok with formula....have to wonder what the agenda of the author is. And if the findings are really accurate.

mamamerlee, LPN · Feb 14, 2010

It's a personal decision. Let's drop it. I breast fed my 2 kids - I am obese, have diabetes, no MI but 2 stents, etc, etc. We recently did a thread about hospitals charging for formula for infants of moms that did not want to breast feed.

Enough already.

SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN · Feb 14, 2010

My mom got mastitis and had to stop when I was born. I'm pretty remarkably healthy.

Jolie, BSN · Feb 14, 2010

I am pro-breastfeeding. Was privileged to successfully do so for an extended period of time with both of my children.

But no decision in life (medical, health or otherwise) is without benefits and risks. I would have appreciated a mention of that in this article.

mustlovepoodles, RN · Feb 14, 2010

Oh, lord. Must we beat that dead horse again? :nuke: I happily breastfed all three of my children for over a year. I also used formula from time to time. My youngest was very hypotonic and unable to nurse well enough to sustain life, so I nursed him in the morning, afternoon, and evening and supplemented him with a special bottle every 2 hours. And he did this for a year! So for all those people who say that bottlefeeding is the death of breastfeeding, it can be done. The only one of my kids who has asthma is the one who exclusively breastfed. :confused:

I would much rather see a mother or father cuddling their new baby, smiling as they give it a bottle than a mother stressed out, feeling guilty and unhappy because she didn't want to breastfeed in the first place or was unable to nurse her baby. Formula is not poison~

klone, MSN, RN · Feb 14, 2010

Yep, it's a fact of life that there are real risks to not breastfeeding. I'm glad that formula is there for the situations in which it's truly needed, and I wish that every mother had access to good info and lots of support to breastfeed her baby, even when it's hard going. It's probably going to be one of those topics that will always divide people and put people on the defensive.

In an ironic twist of fate, I experienced true insufficient milk syndrome with my last baby, and I was forced to supplement him. I am grateful that formula was there for us, and I was also grateful that after about a week, I was able to find a safe supply of donor breastmilk, and I was able to switch to that for all supplementation until he was eating enough solids that I could stop supplementing. For those mothers who don't have access to donor breastmilk, I'm glad that formula is available.

Not_A_Hat_Person, RN · Feb 15, 2010

My 2 youngest cousins are adopted. They were formula fed from day 1. They're healthy, happy, curious kids.

SmilingBluEyes · Feb 15, 2010

BOTTOM LINE? Educate your patients and then let them make their own choices and never, ever guilt them into anything. That is being a true patient advocate. Doing less is doing a disservice to your patients.

JaneyW · Feb 15, 2010

A good friend of mine breastfed three kids over a year each. She had breast cancer by 40, one of her kids was a Type 1 diabetic at 18 months and another has asthma. It may stack the odds in your favor, but it is no guarantee.

Marymoomoo · Feb 15, 2010

I posted the link to this paper in the spirit of information sharing. I didn't intend to stir up controversy or start a debate.

The point of the paper was to outline the risks of formula feeding (otherwise known as the "benefits" of breastfeeding), the importance of counseling about feeding choices during antenatal appointments, as well as the importance of hospital practices that are supportive of breastfeeding. This information was based on a meta analysis of the research, not the author's opinion on the subject. To be clear, the article did not imply that formula is poison (as an aside, I have repeatedly posted here that it is NOT), nor did it say anything about mothers who cannot breastfeed for any number of reasons. I thought the advice to health care providers was respectful of parental choice. See below:

When counseling patients about breastfeeding, studies suggest asking open-ended questions such as: "What have you heard about breastfeeding?" followed by acknowledging the mother's concerns and targeting education to her specific needs. For the mother who elects to bottle feed, this approach allows for an open discussion of risks and benefits and ensures informed consent for the feeding decision. Such an approach is more effective than asking a closed-ended question such as: "Are you going to breast- or bottle-feed?"

If a smoker told us that he was going to continue smoking because he isn't sick and his grandfather smoked for 80 years and died at the ripe old age of 95, what would we think? We know that there are documented health risks to smoking. Not all smokers develop lung cancer or heart disease, though. Come to think of it, many non-smokers do develop lung disease or heart disease. So, what now? Do we not educate smokers that is healthiest to quit smoking because some non-smokers get sick anyway, and some smokers never get sick at all? Do we worry that by educating the smoker about the risks of smoking for him and the people in his household that we will induce guilt? Or do we educate him the risks and let him make his own decision (informed consent)? Okay, so breastfeeding or formula feeding and smoking or not smoking isn't exactly the same kind of decision (and I'm definitely NOT comparing the two!), but I hope that illustrates the disconnect we sometimes see about feeding choice and health outcomes. To explain my comparison, breastfeeding doesn't guarantee health (not smoking), but not breastfeeding increases health risks (smoking).

If we can't agree on anything else, I hope we all can agree that parents deserve to be educated about the differences in health outcomes for both babies and mothers. The choice is completely theirs, but the education needs to come from the health care team. That education should be sensitive to the needs of individuals (for example, if a woman cannot breasteed, we could teach her how to optimize her baby's health while formula feeding and show her ways to maximize physical contact with her baby while bottle feeding).

klone, MSN, RN · Feb 15, 2010

I wish that more women received information and counseling about breastfeeding antenatally. When they come to L&D to have their babies is not the time to be convincing them why they should breastfeed.