# If making breast milk is vital for survival why do many mothers claim to fail at it?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-making-breast-milk-is-vital-for-survival-why-do-many-mothers-claim-to-fail-at-it/474955>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 29, 2008, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-making-breast-milk-is-vital-for-survival-why-do-many-mothers-claim-to-fail-at-it/474955 "2008-11-29T19:06:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![tygerbryght](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9a28c/32.png) [@tygerbryght](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygerbryght)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-making-breast-milk-is-vital-for-survival-why-do-many-mothers-claim-to-fail-at-it/474955/41 "2008-12-03T04:56:04Z")

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> [@Cheesesteak](#):
>
> For me, this is reason #1. We’ve changed from a cooperative society to an individual society where “breastfeeding assistance” means you get a handful of visits from a lactation consultant while in the hospital, and you get sent home with a breastfeeding pamphlet.
> 
> #2, which goes hand in hand with #1… breastfeeding is work. Newborns do not eat, they get fed. The woman has to do 90% of the work, the baby has an instinctual ability to cry when hungry and suck when something is in its mouth, and that’s about it. Lots of times, they don’t even suck right, the woman has to make sure he’s latched on correctly. Saying “breastfeeding is natural” is like saying “hunting is natural” or “gathering is natural”. Sure, we’ve done it forever, but you can’t throw a modern man out into the wilderness with nothing more than a pamphlet and expect him to survive. Yet, we expect women to breastfeed “naturally”.
> 
> Taken together, we’re asking women to do work that may often require assistance or support from experts. We take away the readily available experts that existed for millenia, and replace it with snippets of information. We make it less “acceptable” to openly breastfeed. We also offer a reasonably suitable alternative (formula) that requires less expertise, and is more acceptable in polite society. It’s no surprise that many women wind up having problems with breastfeeding.

You’ve made some excellent points. Son & I were in the hospital for 3 days following birth (yes, those were the days. I feel truly sorry for women today). The nurses in the maternity ward helped me get started. Of course, it helped greatly that my son was a vigorous nurser (he gained 3 oz in those 3 days, which is most unusual). Pamphlets are no substitute for somebody right there, helping you and explaining things.

And of course, the fact that babies eat every few hours, 24 hours a day, amps up the pressure on the mother, who is already highly stressed (first-timers).

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**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-making-breast-milk-is-vital-for-survival-why-do-many-mothers-claim-to-fail-at-it/474955/42 "2008-12-03T05:04:41Z")

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Yeah, that OP is seriously poorly worded. It comes of as judgmental or, at the very least, inflammatory. I hope it wasn’t meant that way!

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