Putting bottle-milk on a par with cigarettes and casinos: how very shocking
The government, under pressure from the fascist breast-feeding lobby – though it has to be said that Health Secretary Chris Fearne seems to need no encouragement and is as bad as the rest of them – has caved in and is to ban advertising of bottle-milk for babies.
This puts the innocuous and absolutely necessary infant formula on a par with tobacco cigarettes and casinos for gambling, the only two products/services for which advertising is banned at law.
The ban, and also its association in this regard with the destructive addictions of smoking and gambling, will only serve to exacerbate the highly destructive message already being drummed home to women that those who voluntarily don’t breastfeed their children are verging on the criminal, while those who don’t because they can’t are massive failures who have let their children down.
It is insane and irresponsible – yes, and fascist.
To make matters worse, the press here appears to have bought into the language used by these fascists. Infant formula milk is infant formula milk, NOT ‘breast milk substitute’.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140829/local/fearne-seeking-agreement-to-ban-advertising-of-breast-milk-substitutes.533615
What do we want? TITS ON TAP!
When do we want it? NOW!
Perhaps Dr. Fearne would better devise a different approach to the subject and plan a strategy whereas women are informed with their choice and with the benefits of both breastfeeding and infant formula milk as opposed to continuing his course.
I guess devising plans and having long term solutions is not what he is after.
How about he does nothing of the sort? Today’s citizens have “information” and “awareness” coming out of their ears.
And why don’t Maltese men speak out against this? Rejoicing in the nanny state is the ultimate castration. There they all, all comfortably slumped at their “consultation meetings”, looking like the Grey Eunuchs.
Gonzi was the pater familias. Muscat is the machine version.
Men of Malta, rise up against the nanny state. You have nothing to lose but your oestrogen.
Generally, Baxxter, flippancy in some cases equates to a sense of humour.
This is downright disgraceful and disgusting: not your comments, but this complete arrogance of women’s rights.
My two daughters were both breastfed, my two granddaughters not so much because my daughter could, but eventually found it uncomfortable, and that’s before they were 6 months old.
How dare you, Mr. Fearne, dictate to new mums about what they should and shouldn’t feed their offspring. What gives you the right to dictate to these mothers.
In my humble opinion you could breastfeed all these babies until time immemorial because with your blinkered and sexist attitude you are the biggest tit going.
Oh, and incidentally, my children were never given dummies or, in American terms, pacifiers. With your attitude I would say ban them next. I might agree with THAT but it’s called democracy and freedom of choice, so get off your bloody high horse before the women that you are so obviously contemptuous of tell you where to stick your advertising ban.
You people make me sick to the stomach.
It had to be two foreigners living in Malta to get some good publicity for us on the BBC. Our PM does no come out so well.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28953237?ocid=socialflow_twitter
This is shocking and hurtful on more levels that I can express. Why are women being criminalised for choosing not to breastfeed, or for not being even able to do so? Are women who make their own choices so terrifying in our society?
When men can breastfeed they are then allowed to take such a decision. Until then just mind your own f*cking business, Chris Fearne.
Hear, hear. Din żgur mhix biċċa tiegħek Chris Fearne. Din hija bejn l-omm u t-tarbija.
Nemmen bħal ma qalet/qal allan r li l-ħalib tas-sider huwa l-aħjar. Imma naf diversi ommijiet li jew għax ma jistgħux, jew għax ma jirnexxilhomx ireddgħu ikollhom jirrununzjaw.
Imma dik biċċa tal-omm, u bl-ebda mod m’għandu jindaħal il-gvern kif u xħin tredda’ t-tarbija tagħha.
Hekk jonqos issa, mela qegħdin fil-medju evu?
Mela qabel għax il-mara riedet toħroġ taħdem, qam urugan u issa wara li l-gvern stess qal li jrid jara aktar nisa joħorġu jaħdmu barra mid-dar, issa se nippruvaw inwaqqfuhom billi ngħidulhom li jridu joqgħodu d-dar ireddgħu t-trabi.
U lil dawk li ma jobdux id-direttiva, se ngħadduhom mill-purgatorju tad-dinja? U ħalluna tridux.
Ironically, formula milk allows men to feed their newborn, so yes, shut up Chris Fearne.
umm, I’ve yet to see an article about a ‘bottle feeding mom’ being told to ‘get out’ of somewhere because she was feeding her baby. but every week there is a new story about a nursing mom being kicked out of somewhere, so bull sh&t about bottle feeding moms being criminalized. You can’t find one bit of evidence to support that. If you feel like a criminal for bottle feeding, that’s your own conscience to deal with. and funny you think women are making there own choices. women are terrified in our society to be ‘soft, gentle, or motherly because peeps like the loving mother type that wrote this article push the anti women propaganda all the time. Read her other articles. She states that moms who stay home to care for family and home aren’t contributors to society. nice. was she raised a test tube by Hitler?
[Daphne – Bottle-feeding mothers are not asked to leave because it’s not the feeding that causes offence but the display of breasts/an intimate act in a public place. It annoys some people, and you have to respect their sentiments.]
What is next? Mothers who don’t breast-feed are stoned in public.
Aren’t women supposed to be in full control of their bodies and what use is made of it? I am amazed that other women are behind this mad and forced ban?
This government thinking process in all that it does is on the lines of a fundamentalist immam or a fundamentalist rabbi, and nowhere near their electoral promises of gender equality. No surprise after, all as working woman on this island are very ocurant of how men with labour affliations think.
No, maybe you’ll be asked to leave the building like breastfeeding moms all around the world are now. Because really bottle feeders are the ‘misled’. So misled they will defend it will all their might so they don’t feel so bad about the whole babies dying and detachment thing. Snarky attitude included.
Oh and the reason women are behind this…because we are real women who use our ‘tits on tap’ as they were intended, and know that small helpless babies have no voice in the matter.
Has anyone bothered to ask the babies what they want?
[Daphne – Milk. And believe me when I say that they don’t give a damn where it comes from: wet nurse, biological mother, mother with bottle or somebody else with a bottle, as long as the person is familiar to them. And when they’re really new, they don’t even bother about that, either.]
That is an outrage. I still can’t forget the treatment we received after having our daughter and she wouldn’t latch on properly.
They kept bloody pulling, pinching and stretching to get a few bloody drops out. I was so upset after. I felt like I was in a milking factory and the only goal was to get more milk.
I also happen to be quite fond of her breasts and would prefer if the pecking order for making any decisions on her breasts is:
1. my wife;
2. nobody f*cking else.
By our second child she came prepared and had no problem putting those people in their place, but a first-time mother, after a painful and long process of delivering a baby is in general not in the state of mind to handle that kind of abuse – because yes, it is abusive.
Now by all means my preferred source of finding out which type of formula to buy is a paediatrician, not adverts, but that is beside the point.
In my opinion the most shocking statement is when the Hon Minister stated that he hoped that “we won’t be forced to enact a legal notice and send wardens to patrol doctors’ clinics to make sure that that breast milk substitutes for mothers of infants under six months of age are not being advertised, but if needs be, we will enact legislation to enforce it.”
However, perhaps even worst than this statement is the complacent look on the face of the females present for the press conference.
Are we in a sci-fi movie wherein the authorities control your every move and every choice? Are we trying to mirror the 1930s prohibitionism?
It is true that breast milk is best but not everyone generates enough milk to feed a hungry baby and there are also situations in life that leave a mother unable to breast feed.
In these circumstances advertising is vital for the mother to make an informed choice but it seems that the intention is to make infant formula quasi illegal and to drive its advertising underground. Where is our freedom of choice? Where are the women’s rights movements when you need them?
Finally, it is of no surprise at all that such statements come from a man. Hon Minister please leave women do their choices without any unnecessary pressures and any unwarranted and unjustified state intervention. We are living in 2014 and not 1930.
Ridiculous and with no scientific basis either. This is giving in to the opinions of a minority pressure group. Disgusting
Illegal under EU rules, I believe.
Did you say casinos can’t advertise? At the airport inside the arrivals hallway and arrivals hall everywhere is plastered with casino advertising.
[Daphne – Any print publication which carries advertising or promotion for casinos/slot machine parlours is subject to a heavy fine.]
It makes our airport look so tacky. I would wish to see that kind of advertising at Vienna airport.
I forgot they were unable to keep the runway lit in the recent power outage, so why complain about the advertising standards.
As Mintoff used to shout: Foreigners go home. For once I agree with him.
Freedom5, I love you and I want to have your babies (breastfed, of course). TACKY is the word. Malta as the Big Slot Machine In The Med. Malta The Debauched. Malta Hedonism II (but beware marci tal-festa).
Firstly this move is both irresponsible and, yes, fascist.
Secondly, to all those posting panicky comments on this blog and other sites, please don’t be dickheads. Nobody is saying that formula will be banned.
It’s just that its promotion for use by babies less than 6 months will be prohibited.
How many of us actually used formula after watching an advert or reading promo material? It’s mostly word of mouth that counts. Also I can think of at least two zillion loopholes of how local distributors may get around such prohibition.
[Daphne – That is NOT the point. The real issue here is the message conveyed by the ban itself: that infant formula milk is so bad that advertising it is banned, just like tobacco cigarettes, casinos and slot machine parlours.]
In all of history, breastfeeding has never been seen as important as it is today. This applies to the whole western world. Breastfeeding has become the modern way to control independent women.
Throughout most of the 20th century, most notably in the 60’s, women gave formula milk to their babies because they liked the feeling of independence and control over their bodies. They also wanted to avoid having sagging breasts (a good reason as any other; don’t we have liposuction and the King of Botox for our plastic surgery needs nowadays?)
Of course, formula milk is a life-saver in those cases where the mother cannot breastfeed. Before the advent of formula milk, mothers used to give infants the infinitely inferior cow’s or goat’s milk. The rich made use of a wet nurse, the poor left their babies to die from failure to thrive.
And ‘breast milk substitute’ is a very good name for formula milk. It highlights how similar it is to breast milk.
As for those who insist that natural is always better, they should ditch their cars and use the natural way of mobility: walking.
What a boob.
http://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/08202014-a-dads-breastfeeding-tale/?scid=momsbaby_20140826:2&pe=MlVETmlwR3wyMDE0MDgyNg..
This is how ridiculous the situation regarding breastfeeding has become. A father slipping a bottle of formula milk behind his wife’s back to help his son survive.
My neighbour had to go through hell for over 10 years to have a baby, and then decided to adopt a child. She will now be labelled a failure as she surely cannot breast feed.
Fearne is a failure in this instance and in all the other stupidities he has rolled out to date. Is he still imbibing on his mother’s backward Mintoffian ideas?
Could this be a subtle form of control to reduce imports and reduce the ever-increasing trade gap? Why are these Labour Ministers falling over each other to claim the title of the most ridiculous waste of space?
That would be absolutely the pits.
Women as human resources, literally.
What about women like myself , I always wanted to breastfeed but after giving birth had very high blood pressure and was told that I could not breastfeed due to the pills that I had to take. Does this make me a failure, I have three healthy children thank God they were never breast fed.
Dr. Fearne and his merry band should stop advocating what is best for woman and baby. What next, telling Maltese women to wear veils or a burka. I strongly object being treated as if I do not know what is best for me especially by a man.
So they say: ‘a woman has a right if she wants to abort, because it is her body’ But she does not have a say if she wants to breast feed or not.
Once there is scientific evidence showing the benefits of breast milk, I see nothing wrong in the government adopting this policy.
An advertising campaign was undertaken some years ago on this. I understand some women may not want, can’t or find it difficult to breast feed and for these women formula milk is still available.
[Daphne – David, if there are benefits to breastfeeding, then advertise those benefits, not ban advertising of the competition (formula milk). By your reasoning, the advertising of white bread should be banned because brown bread is better for your digestive system.]
Insisting on breastfeeding and shaming those who don’t IS harmful. I’ve seen babies crying with hunger, because, for some reason or other, the mother is not producing enough milk, while the midwife insisted that she should continue trying.
The pro-breast lobby often appears insensitive to new mothers’ needs and the fact that their almost criminalisation of the bottle can lead some of these new mothers to depression.
Breast is good but it is not always best and its benefits have always been exaggerated by the breastfeeding lobby anyhow.
This should be a choice made by the mother with the right information but without pressure and without information about breastfeeding being withheld.
I agree with you. One of my children as a newborn would feed every 45 minutes, large amounts of milk (full bottle). There was no way of satiating her that she had to be formula milk feed.
Oh, and she is extremely thin now, despite eating normally.
The white bread vs brown bread issue is controversial. In any case traditional Maltese bread is white and so we should promote this type of bread.
But no one is being paid to insist that you just eat brown bread and shaming you in eating that and only that, even if it’s making you sick…
David, I think that you need some lessons in comprehension.
David, honestly your thinking skills and understanding of democracy need some improvement. I suggest you go live overseas in several European capitals. You need to expose your thoughts to the locals and see their reactions. Ma tafx kif forsi tigi illuminat.
[Daphne – David doesn’t live in Malta.]
David Friggieri? Good lord in heaven.
http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2014/08/29/malta-lultimo-paradiso-fiscale-ue-rischia-deriva-e-vende-passaporti-a-ricchi-russi/1102211/&ct=ga&cd=CAEYACoUMTA3Mzk5MDU2MTIwNTUzNjkyMzkyHTJhNmE3MWNlODY3N2VhOWI6Y29tLm10Oml0Ok1U&usg=AFQjCNFjSTigo_3wDiH2HvudlO6fURBl1Q
in mitigation :-
http://public.health.oregon.gov/healthypeoplefamilies/babies/breastfeeding/pages/benefits.aspx
[Daphne – The WHO recommends breastfeeding for the first two years of life because its primary field of operation is in third-world and under-developed countries where formula milk means a high infant mortality rate – not because of the formula milk itself, but because of poor hygiene and lack of education about/facilities for clean water for mixing and the sterilisation of bottles. Then all those babies who are breastfed grow up to die not much later of starvation, war and disease anyway. It was the same in Malta in the mid-20th century: the poor were breastfed but lived much shorter and unhealthier lives than the well-off who were not. Because it’s really not about breastfeeding, is it – and that’s the truth nobody wants to face.]
Not this again.
No, the WHO recommends breastfeeding for the first two years of life because the available evidence indicates that breast milk is better in any case and using formula under the conditions you describe is madness.
[Daphne – I think you need to read up on the history of formula milk use in the conditions I describe, as you are clearly uninformed on the root cause of WHO’s involvement in this matter. Google ‘Nestle infant formula Africa 1970s’ but try this for starters: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/nestle-baby-milk-scandal-food-industry-standards ]
Well trust me, even the WHO is rethinking this in view of transmittable illnesses via breastfeeding (for third world countries).
And the jury’s out again :-
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/02February/Pages/Breast-milk-no-better-than-bottled-researcher-claims.aspx
Really and truly, both Fearne and yourself are being far too dogmatic in your approaches. Fearne’s over-stating the case for breast-feeding, probably placing undue psychological pressure on mothers who can’t or won’t.
You, however, are coming at it from the other extreme, dismissing the case entirely when there is distinct evidence pointing to certain breastfeeding advantages. Neither of you is being very objective and you both hopelessly undermine your respective credibilities.
[Daphne – Not very analytical, are you? My approach is for absolute freedom of choice in this matter, and that means NOT presenting breast milk as better. There is a very sound reason for this that has nothing to do with the qualities of the milk or its effects on the baby: THE EFFECT ON THE MOTHER. Women in culturally backward countries like Malta are routinely thought of and treated as being of secondary importance to their baby once the baby is ‘in production’ or has been born. This permeates attitudes throughout and the total lack of sensitivity is responsible for much of the anxiety and depression to which so many new mothers succumb.
It should be effing obvious to even the least perceptive and sensitive person that if you present the milk which is NOT available to all as obviously better than the milk which IS available to all, then you are setting the stage for massive problems. And those massive problems are occurring.
We had a news report the other week – ‘Failure to breastfeed increases risk of postnatal depression’. Well, DING DONG. It’s not the failure to breastfeed that does this, but the perception that you have FAILED YOUR BABY in a culture that rams home formula milk as a poor substitute.
That’s why I make a point of always ramming the more sensible point home: that it doesn’t matter what milk your baby drinks as long as the bottle is sterilised, that breast milk won’t make your baby any taller, better looking or intelligent than decreed by its genetic heritage, and that very often, bottle is indeed best because it’s a matter of picking what’s best for you. Better a calm mother with a bottle than a weeping, hysterical one trying to breastfeed and failing and then wanting to slit her wrists when the baby gulps a bottle down as though he’s starving (which he probably is).
I think you forget that I have rather a lot of experience in these matters, direct and indirect.]
Actually, data analysis is my field and this is where your problem lies. Data compilation and statistical analysis are a science and all the layman’s rationality in the world is of no use without appropriate training in the subject.
I’ve seen your earlier approach to the subject (your recollections of fat school colleagues) and it was little more than speculative under-sampling, relying on memory and anecdotal evidence.
There was no science to it and your conclusions, however emphatically defended, were without value. You simply must accept the fact that you have no formal training in scientific rationale – only, like most people, while having no real concept of what that entails, you nonetheless believe that you know enough to reach your own valid conclusions. What you do is a little like attempting an appendicectomy without even knowing that you have to select an appropriate scalpel blade first (let alone knowing which one to choose).
[Daphne – Unfortunately people with your attitude are absolutely antipathetic towards the essence of liberalism and, fundamentally, cannot understand what is happening here with the breastfeeding lobby. It is NOT about health but about control of women in the one avenue that the chauvinist fundamentalists (many of whom are actually women themselves) have left open to them now that most other avenues of control are gone. Infant formula milk is not in the same category as tobacco cigarettes, so banning its advertising in the same way must be questioned on THOSE GROUNDS. It should be obvious that if infant formula milk were actually bad for infants, then it would be banned outright and not merely be subject to an advertising ban (in the same way that cigarettes are banned for children). The advertising ban does not stand the test of logic. What is the health department saying here – that infant formula milk is bad for babies but OK if you have no choice? If infant formula milk is so bad for babies, then why aren’t they recommending a return to the days of wet nurses?
Also, I hasten to remind you that women are not numbers and statistics. Nor, for that matter, are babies. Almost certainly unlike you, I have given birth in a public hospital three times and have seen with my own eyes how women are treated on the breastfeeding issue. This is not a new problem at all, believe me. I have seen women who have just given birth, some of them barely able to walk, being harried and bullied into trying to breastfeed their baby, surrounded by bosses matrons and midwives pushing, pulling, poking and treating them like animals at the vet. Utterly disgusting. And if you actually bothered to talk to women as I do, you will see that this is pretty much a universal experience nowadays, that it has got worse and not better.]
You draw sweeping conclusions eg”There is a very sound reason for this that has nothing to do with the qualities of the milk or its effects on the baby: THE EFFECT ON THE MOTHER.” This is wrong – there is increasing evidence to suggest that there are direct physical and psychological benefits to mums who breastfeed.
[Daphne – Oh right. Because you have a lot of experience in that, I imagine. Rest assured that your ‘increasing evidence’ almost certainly comes from women who have just the one child, probably fairly late in life, and nothing else to do but look after the baby. If you wish, I’ll given you a detailed explanation of the ‘direct physical and psychological benefits’ of breastfeeding a newborn baby while his one-year-old brother howls because his nappy needs changing, his two-year-old brother wants lunch, the washing-machine is flooding and somebody is ringing the doorbell persistently while the phone shrills. Grow up and enter the real world. There are plenty of physical benefits to both mother and child in having your children in your early 20s, so what are you going to suggest – forcing women to do that?]
Ignoring this evidence does not add validity to your point-of-view. Effing obvious or otherwise, ON THE BASIS OF REAL EVIDENCE (well, you started the capitals thing this time), the advantages of breast milk and breast feeding outweigh the advantages of formula.
[Daphne – No, they don’t. They only seem to do so because the list of ‘advantage boxes’ you and the researchers are ticking is selective. If the advantages of infant formula milk did not outweigh those of breast milk in so many ways and for so many people, it would not be so popular and so widely used. You and the researchers are considering an ‘all things being equal scenario’ of women having just the one baby in an otherwise empty life, but reality is not like that. When breastfeeding is upsetting the entire household and even the baby itself, then the disadvantages of breast milk clearly outweigh the advantages of formula milk. So great, we have a breast fed baby whose mother is on the verge of a breakdown, with a husband who is sick to the gills, other small children who are not getting the attention they need, housework going undone, nobody making lunch while daddy is at work, piles of laundry all over the house, mummy still in her nightdress at 4 in the afternoon, and all this to breastfeed a newborn baby on demand.]
It DOES make a difference what milk your baby takes, IF you have a choice. This is the crux of the matter. In the absence of choice, formula is a very good alternative. However, it is debatable whether it is AS good and there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever, anywhere, that it is better.
I’m afraid that your own personal experiences with child-rearing, even if you had 50 children, which I doubt, is of no relevance whatsoever – as a sample of approximately 1 – 2 billion children worldwide, it is valueless. Your opinion (because it doesn’t qualify as an argument) is based on personal memory, random conclusivity, avoidance of scientific evidence to the contrary and huge personal subjectivity.
Don’t pursue this line of ‘argument’ – you have brilliant political perception. It would be a shame indeed were you to undermine your impressive credibility in this field by making a fool of yourself in subjects you simply know nothing about.
[Daphne – Actually, babyblue, many doctors, psychologists and nurses agree with me privately but have been bullied into silence by the breastfeeding fascists. Unlike you, they don’t deal with statistics but with real women and babies and can see the widespread harm being done by this. I can see it myself, because over the last 30 years I have had dealings with very many women and babies and have noticed that an insistence on breastfeeding, sometimes even up to a couple of years old, goes hand in hand with maternal neurosis and a very maladjusted (and sometimes clearly pale and undernourished) child. Of course my own experience is relevant.]
Why are you so fixated on the issue of ‘domination of women’? It is the driving influence behind so many of your arguments and it skews the rationality of your thought processes to the extent that you seem to think nothing of making obviously nonsensical, unfounded statements.
[Daphne – I am not fixated on the issue of ‘domination of women’. I merely acknowledge it as a fact. It is most certainly not an opinion. If statistics and research are your thing, this is most certainly one field where you can wallow. Also, I am a woman, which means that – unlike you – I have a vested interest in the matter, to say nothing of the fact that I also have direct experience of it because I was born in 1964, not 1984 or 1994.]
You seem willing to sacrifice your credibility on the altar of this theme, without realizing that it undermines progress on the very issue which appears to be so dear to you.
[Daphne – Credibility is built up over years, babyblue. And it also involves using one’s own name. I suggest you try using yours. It might give your arguments a bit more credibility than anonymity does.]
Fearne is a nasty bit of work and the extreme attitude he has adopted towards this matter is little more than an egotistical display of power on his part. However, your insistence on pooh-poohing the bleedin’ obvious (and, yes, in the hard world of scientific fact, it is bleedin’ obvious that the benefits of breastfeeding trump the benefits of bottle feeding) does equal harm to the pursuit of unprejudiced truth that, presumably, both you and and I are embarked upon.
[Daphne – I am afraid that no, it isn’t ‘bleeding obvious’. The results are controversial and unclear at best, skewed at worst. The fact is that there are far too many variables at work for a clear picture to emerge of breast-feeding vs infant formula milk. This is not like cigarette-smoking, when a direct and obvious link to lung cancer and other health difficulties can be made. With a baby/child you have no way to knowing for certain whether he or she would have been any different if the milk had been different. You can’t raise the same baby twice, once on bottle, once on breast. Yes, you can factor in controls and adjust the findings for differences in culture, society, diet, genetics, and so on, and the results are still anything but conclusive. Interestingly, the warnings are not even about anything specific. ‘Obesity’. Oh indeed.]
You don’t have to raise the same baby twice to get a reliable indicator. This is where your persistent mathematical black hole kicks in. All you need is an ever-increasing sample, with a rigidly established margin of error, proper randomization and suitable repetition.
Every subsequent indicator will point more and more accurately in the right direction.
Of course it is easier to demonstrate in a dominant causal relationship, like health and smoking but a non-dominant causality, such as the one we are talking about, follows exactly the same lines – only it takes a lot longer to demonstrate conclusively.
Nonetheless, a lot of evidence is already documented and, so far, it is all pointing in one direction. If your theories had any substance to them, something to support them would have emerged by now. But it hasn’t.
Wow! Feels as if we’re being transported back to the Middle Ages.
Soon we’ll be hearing about women being taken for trial before the Breast Milk Inquisition.
In the meantime our adolescents keep being bombarded by adverts showing cool and happy people drinking alcohol. Isn’t advertising alcohol much worse?
Yesterday I accompanied a grieving family to the mortuary at Mater Dei Hospital to pick up a stillborn baby for burial.
I was shocked to note that the tag showing the child’s details and pinned to his clothing was emblazoned with – of all things – the phrase “Breast milk is best.”
The sheer insensitivity of the whole thing was breathtaking. I wanted to tear off that tag and shout “F&ck you, you callous bastards!”
On a different note:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNDBNQLj8vE
Seinfeld anyone? Behold the Milk Nazis.
They ram breastfeeding down everyone’s throat and although it has its undeniable benefits, it is just not for every mother.
But to go to the extreme of an outright ban on advertising is indeed taking it too far – seems very much a case of trying to look busy doing nothing.
This country needs more of the good Nazis: grammar Nazis, sartorial Nazis, FKK Nazis, hybrid car Nazis.
Instead we get the wrong sort: Semitic Maltese Nazis (aka the Maltese Taleban), marc tal-festa Nazis, Nazi Nazis and now, breast Nazis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI-mDTdeKR8
Of course, but that’s because the soundtrack was written by none other than Henry Purcell in 1695. Because this is The West, Jozef. The West! Behold the West! The Grecian Urn! The Zieme too.
And our stupid politicians think it’s about FONDI.
umm, well, unless you were unfortunate enough to be born without breasts… it is for every mother.
whether you choose it or not is your choice, and because formula is a leading cause of death in babies moms should really take the choice a little more seriously than they do.
advertising something that is a leading cause of death to the average mom who might not know the ‘true’ benefits of breastfeeding isn’t the best idea. I mean car commercials tell you that it’s a stunt driver on a closed course, do the formula ads shell out the truth and say ‘hey our formula killed millions of babies this year!!!!! buy some now.
a formula ad should sound like a pharmaceutical ad where they let you know the ‘death’ possibility.
I also heard that one of the measures to promote breastfeeding would be to introduce just one brand of formula milk at Mater Dei Hospital. This shall take place from October. So, whoever does not like the said brand would have to bring along her choice of milk from home or else breastfeed.
Ah so that what it is all about – one particular brand of formula milk. Wonder who is the importer of such brand ? Should become a millionaire in no time without competition.
Hemm hi! Dik hija l-imma. Jiġifieri brand minnhom hija tajba għall-isptar. L-oħrajn le?
What a silly idea – are they even considering lactose intolerant babies? Or babies that have reflux so they need specialised milk? Vera injoranti.
Chris Fearne to refer immediately. With Labour it’s always a hidden agenda.
There’s more to internet shopping; maturity to freedom and an evolved fickle market go together.
And do they know it.
And behold, the Mater Dei official formula milk brand:
http://postimg.org/image/7ll6sxd39/
Sweet.
What Dr Fearne wants to do is cutting cost for buying formula milk usually provided at the hospital. By doing so, mothers who do not want to breast feed has to bring in their own milk formula or else nothing will be available.
well, if you don’t want to breastfeed why is it the hospitals responsibility to pay for the formula? bringing it yourself sounds like the perfect option.
Its ridiculous how a ban on advertising is understood as a ban on giving formula milk… It will still be sold and the option is still there… Also, mothers are informed of the choices during parent craft sessions that preceed birth. Finally…just a thought… Can anyone name an animal that is fed with milk from an other species apart from humans?
[Daphne – That’s because no other mammal (only mammals make milk, Tino) has the capacity to invent, make and use formula milk, as a result of which infant mammals who for some reason cannot be fed by their mother are left to die – unless they are fed by humans using some other kind of milk than the breast milk of their species. To cite the most obvious example because it happens all the time even in routine life in Malta: puppies and kittens often have to be bottle-fed, and rest assured that they are not fed with milk expressed from their mother’s nipples.
Read my post again: the ban is wrong in itself, because the ban itself conveys the message that infant formula milk is as dangerous as cigarettes and gambling.]
Tino, can you name any other animal that talks, studies, goes to work, drives a car and gets married, divorced, lives in air conditioned houses and watches TV?
It’s easy to go back to the ‘naturalist’ argument when it’s women who have to bear the brunt.
No one talks of men having fillings the ”natural’ way, i.e. without painkillers, no one tells men to walk to work and not use AC because it’s not natural ..
Do me a favour, will you, stop treating mothers like lactating orangutans and stop using the nature argument. Carry a baby for 9 months, nourish it they way you think is best, love it and then tell me what is natural or not.
angry bird- watching tv and using the ac doesn’t affect your babies health, formula does. Babies can die from formula you know, even in modern society babies get intestinal infections etc and die. They won’t list the cause of death as formula of course, but the fact is more bottle fed babies die that breast fed babies. 100 % fact. so, if women have the breasts and the ability to feed why wouldn’t you. to be selfish and ‘modern’. Unlike the hateful author of this column I think it’s a privilege to ‘feed’ my baby, not a burden. why have kids to hook them to a tube and sent them off the school to be raised by strangers.
really the propaganda is telling women that they are stupid non contributors if they stay home to raise our future planet dwellers. A pretty freakin important job I think. and comparing a breastfeeding women to an orangutan is pretty rude. The fact is women are only ‘tied’ to babies or ‘strapped down’ because most of society hates kids. Fact. If motherly women were in charge babies would go to work with many of us, could go where we went etc. Society wants you to be free of attachment to your child, so start by cutting the connection cord of breastfeeding, stick a bottle in your kids mouth and then send them to the nearest state run school where they too can learn that a women who stays home with her family and breastfeeds in a monkey.
formula makes billions! breastfeeding makes 0$
make women feel strong and empowered by neglecting their babies and get their money. Genius!!
When I had my first child, the plan was to breasfeed full time.
I had given up my job to look after the baby. Baby latched on beautifully, drank copiously in one go and I can safely say that the decision to breastfeed was a complete success.
DESPITE all this, after 3 months of full time breastfeeding a pleasantly quiet baby, I was overwrought with fatigue and when I took baby to paediatrician for the 3-month visit, I told him that baby is too attached to me, baby won’t sleep unless on me etc etc.
Doc had one look at me and told me “you have given the baby the best you could give him, give it up and turn to formula”.
Moral of this story, within seconds this doc realised that the problem was me, the mum, not baby that was running into difficulty because of fatigue and he gave me his unbiased opinion to stop even though he was the very one who encouraged me and my breastfeeding since baby was doing so well on breast.
Well done doc (male) for recognising the extent of dedication to full time breastfeeding can lead to. Deep down I knew that I had reached the end of my tether and wanted to stop but no amount of convincing from my supportive husband or family could make me stop out of guilt EXCEPT for the opinion of a professional.
I thank him to this day because upon stopping, I could enjoy my baby better.
I am proud to have breastfed. Four years after and I breastfed my other baby full time for 8 months without a problem and because I felt comfortable doing it and stopped without any guilt when I felt like doing so.
To all mothers out there, coming from someone who is in favour of breastfeeding because it is so bloody convenient, just do whatever YOU think is best. I and my siblings were never breastfed and have the constitution of a horse. It is FAR more important to keep your sanity than breastfeeding your baby.
so Bored, basically you were tired of breastfeeding and had inner guilt and felt comfort in a ‘professional’ telling you it was ‘ok’ to quit nursing your baby. Well, there are dozens of other things he could have told you, like you’re in the midst of the the ‘busiest’ time in breastfeeding, that your baby will nurse less as time goes on, he could remind you that parenting isn’t easy, and he could have recommended that you get some family help and take small breaks. He could have even reminded you that you will have a healthier future as well from breastfeeding. Well, you need to remember that formula isn’t as good as breastmilk no matter what the formula sponsored studies say, and that mothers have managed since the beginning of time to keep there sanity and still nurse their babies. Thank goodness our foremothers weren’t talked out of being devoted moms or none of us might be here now. Sorry to bust your happy bubble but I get SO sick of moms who ‘quit’ telling other moms it ok to quit too. Maybe to surround yourselves with more moms like yourself so you all don’t feel so guilty.
oh and P.S. babies can’t get ‘too’ attached.
Careful how you get off your moral high horse dear, you might hurt yourself
Oh, and had you read my comment well you would have realized that indeed, I am in favour of breast feeding, so much so that I breast fed both my children and would do so again and again if I was of childbearing age. What you fail to see from your high horse is that you cannot put everything and everyone under the same umbrella. Breast feeding my second child for eight months full time made me realize I wasn’t in the right mind zone and perhaps feeling a touch of baby blues….and the doc must have realized this being the good doc he is and suggested I stop. I used to go to a mother and baby group, all of us tits out too!
Daphne, do you propose to be more knowledgeable than WHO (world health organisation) and UNICEF ?
These international organisations work tirelessly to constantly carry out research in child health.
I would urge anyone who wants to know the real facts to look at some proper research based facts NOT some non medical woman’s ramblings to earn money.
As much as I do believe that breastfeeding is good for all children, I hope that no mother has to go through what I went through when my little girl was born.
I gave birth to my daughter whilst I had severe conjunctivitis and my daughter who needed special care (I will not dwell on this) was whisked away to NPICU and I could not hold her for six days, let alone breastfeed her.
The first question I was asked was which milk I wanted to give my daughter. (The medical side was of course taken care of). Being my first child, I had asked around and done some research but would not have known which milk was imported to Malta had it not been for advertising, and now our dear Minister wants to ban this?
Please think of the mothers who have no choice but to bottle feed and make a campaign to stop the ridiculous pressures/glances which some mothers face when breastfeeding in public.
It’s not a sin to breastfeed but neither is is a sin to bottlefeed and bottle fed babies grow up just as healthily as breastfed babies and succeed in life too! Dear Minister, please please do NOT give the impression that homeless/unwanted children at the creche are NOT given good care because they are bottlefed!
Daphne, firstly thank you for your interest in the matter.
The long trail of comments goes to show that the subject is a highly emotive one because it has to do,firstly, with the woman’s body and secondly to do with experience which can be positive or negative.
To the contrary of bored I could not breast feed. I had three children in my early thirties. I consider myself educated, with a lovely career working with children. I knew it all. My children would be breastfed, use no dummies and be treated with natural remedies….but life had other plans!
I won’t bore you with the details, however in one of my desperate new mummy moments, I took my child to A&E. The consultant there (to this day I consider him an angel), asked my husband and I what we did for a living and he gave us formula.
My child gulped it up and for the first time in 2 months she slept for two hours.
This same consultant told us that not all breast milk is created equal and he told us this because he knew we could handle it (we told him we worked in the field of psychology). He said many mothers would get depressed if they were told this. I was relieved.
Needless to say it wasn’t a hospital in Malta. My experience of motherhood changed completely after that. I actually could bond with my child!
The midwives here are toning it down….or at least they have done so in my case as I had the same issues for the consecutive two. One midwife said that basically she couldn’t tell me to stop breast feeding but she implied that the needs of the family are more important….sanity being one of them.
So please let’s not turn this into a nanny state where people are “educated” by the state in personal matters such as this. Surely such a modern government should know otherwise.
Apologies for the personal rather than scientific comment however, at the end of the day, breast feeding is personal.
Well said.