Breastfeeding Debate the Scandinavian Way

It’s interesting to see the different angles of the breastfeeding debate. While the Irish and British debate usually focus on whether to breastfeed or not, or about ways to encourage more women to breastfeed their children when possible, a similar, yet quite different debate is going on in Scandinavia.

The current debate in Scandinavia is about the breastfeeding garments ‘hooter hiders’, and whether these are helpful or a giant step back. The ‘hooter hiders’ are large pieces of fabric to button around the neck while breastfeeding; the garment hides the baby and the woman’s upper body. Some discussion forums and newspapers have renamed the garments ‘breastfeeding tents’.

All images from www.dagbladet.no

Doctors warn that the communication between mother and child will suffer due to the lack of eye contact when using the garment.

Interestingly, on the Swedish discussion forum vimedbarn (Uswithchildren) the most common response to the thread ‘How to breastfeed in public’ is ‘not to care what everyone else thinks’, ‘do it wherever the baby is hungry’, and  ’sometimes I use a shawl or something, but if the baby’s hungry and I didn’t bring anything, I’ll still go ahead and do it’.

The Breastfeeding Stigma

One thing that always brightens my day is seeing this sticker on the window of restaurants and coffee shops:

Although in an ideal world these would be unnecessary, and breastfeeding would be an everyday occurrence in public places, it’s great that some establishments take a stand for mothers feeding their children.

But it’s ridiculous that there are places which doesn’t.

I have never understood the stigma of breastfeeding in this country. In a way, it’s a bit of the chicken and egg situation really; do such a low number of women breastfeed their children because it’s frowned upon, or is it frowned upon because such a low number of women do it?

Obviously not all women are able to breastfeed their children. Others chose only to do it for a short period of time for various reasons, such as returning to work. It’s a shame however, when women choose not to breastfeed their babies because of the stigma attached to it.

In an article published in the Irish Times last month, a woman who spends a lot of time in Finland (one of the countries with highest rates of breastfeeding in Europe) said she has only positive experiences breastfeeding her child in Finland. In Ireland however, she said, people ‘just don’t want to know’;

I was feeding one of mine in Shaws restaurant, and was being very discreet, when a middle-aged man got up and left his food on the table. I suppose if I was confident I’d ignore it, but that just put me off.

Last week, Guardian journalist Viv Groskop described similar attitudes to breastfeeding in the UK (which along with Ireland has one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding in Europe), quoting Anne Enright:

I know of no quicker way to clear a room

Describing her commute with her baby during rush hour, Groskop wrote:

As we got closer to the city centre, the carriage was rammed. Some people were left on the platform, waiting for the next train. As passengers wheezed, sweated and gasped in the crush, the seat next to my lactating self remained free and unoccupied throughout a full 13 stops. I blushed.

The UK based Daily Mail Online recently wrote about a mother who was asked to ‘face the wall’ when breastfeeding her baby in a library. Earlier this year, the deputy editor of ‘Mother & Baby’ described breastfeeding as creepy. Thankfully, the following uproar showed that many people are willing to fight the stigma.

There are advocates for breastfeeding in Ireland as well. This Saturday, mothers and babies will gather in a shopping centre in Cork to try to set a new world record for the most children breastfeeding at the same time. The event is one of many to mark National Breastfeeding Week, which kicks off tomorrow.

There are also two major websites supporting and providing information about breastfeeding in Ireland; www.breastfeeding.ie (currently using this illustration on their homepage, which cracks me up):

and www.breastfeeding.ie.

And one of my personal favourites, though not Irish, the organisation If Breastfeeding Offends You, Put a Blanket Over YOUR head!. They also have a Facebook group for people who want to show their support.