Blog si Feminis

This recent week one mailing list I join has been talking about the
plan of the Health Institution of South Sulawesi to issue a provincial
bill to (somewhat) force women who just deliver babies to breastfeed
them as well as to manage the distribution of formula milk in the area.
The deputy head of the Health Institution, Saad Bustam said that there
was a tendency for women (especially working women) nowadays to give
their babies formula milk instead of breastfeed them with practicality
as the main reason while in fact it is believed that mothers’ milk is
the best for babies. The background of this plan is because Human
Development Index of the area is in the twenty-third rank. It is
assumed that giving mothers’ milk to the babies will improve the
quality of human resources in the area so that in the future it is
expected to be able to increase the Human Development Index.
The
discussion of this subject in the mailing list is related to the anti
pornography bill that eventually just makes women criminals. For
example, women are not allowed to wear sheer clothes that will turn on
men in public places. When sexual abuse is done by those men, due to
the sheer clothes women wear, the women will be imprisoned. So, instead
of protecting women from sexual abuse, the anti pornography bill just
makes women criminals.
So will the “mothers’ milk bill”, I assume.
When a woman cannot breastfeed her baby—with so many reasons, such as
the woman has to go out of town to work while she doesn’t have money to
bring the baby with her so that she has to leave the baby in the
village where the grandmother, or any other female relatives, takes
care of the baby, or because of natural cause, the woman cannot produce
any milk from her breasts, which is oftentimes possible to happen—the
woman will be put in jail, or pay fine.
A good thing has been done
by the Health Institution though: providing special rooms for women who
want to breastfeed their babies in malls so that the women do not do
that in open public areas. Related to the anti pornography bill, a
woman can be imprisoned too when she breastfeeds her baby in a public
area. She will be accused to intentionally show the sensual part of her
body—breasts.
*****
When delivering my baby in 1991, I did that
in one midwife’s house close to my dwelling place. Before my breasts
produced milk, the assistant of the midwife prepared a glass of sugared
water to give Angie when she was crying because of feeling thirsty or
hungry. We used a small teaspoon to put the water into Angie’s tiny
mouth. (She weighed 2.6 kg and 49 cm long.) Several hours after that,
my breasts produced milk and I could breastfeed Angie directly. The
midwife also prepared a box of formula milk in case we needed that. The
midwife opined that it was better not to give the baby any formula milk
yet before the mother produced milk.
I concluded that the midwife
wanted to indirectly campaign to breastfeed babies for women who
delivered babies in her house. This is absolutely good.
FYI, I
breastfed Angie till she was four months old without giving her any
other milk or any food. After that, I still breastfed her until she was
one year old, (because I had to resume my study out of town and she was
with her granny) but of course plus food. I started to give her formula
milk when I was busy resuming my study.
*****
Recently when
some good friends of mine got married, got pregnant, and then delivered
their babies in hospitals (not in a midwife’s house like my
experience), I heard similar experiences. Before their breasts produced
milk, the nurses gave the babies formula milk when the babies cried.
They apparently didn’t have patience to wait until the babies’ mothers
could breastfeed them. Or perhaps there was cooperation between the
hospital and the formula milk distributors for profit.
What happened
after that? Some friends told me that their babies didn’t want to drink
the mother’s milk, they chose the formula milk instead. That was the
first liquid they tasted and they didn’t want any other. Some others
said that they still could breastfeed their babies, but not as the main
milk, only as the additional one.
*****
Is breastfeeding included
women’s destiny? So that they are not supposed to avoid it? I don’t
agree with it although only women have breasts, and not men. Under some
special circumstances, some women cannot produce milk from their
breasts although they just deliver babies. What is wrong? Well, I never
know why.
When Angie was born in April 1991, there was a neighbor of
mine who delivered her baby several weeks afterwards. Without knowing
why, her breasts didn’t produce any milk so that she had to give her
baby formula milk. She felt very disappointed but any effort she did to
make her breasts produce milk was in vain. Was she a bad mother? Of
course not. What happened was really beyond her capability.
PT56 11.45 190508

Comments RSS