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Indonesian mothers fight lonely battle to breast-feed
Although breast-feeding is natural, many mothers would testify that it is not easy, especially in a world where commercial interests lurk at every corner, ready to derail mothers’ efforts to give their babies the best: breast milk
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lthough breast-feeding is natural, many mothers would testify that it is not easy, especially in a world where commercial interests lurk at every corner, ready to derail mothers’ efforts to give their babies the best: breast milk.
It is even more difficult for working mothers, and almost impossible for mothers who work in factories working in shifts that give no room for them to express breast milk.
While the government is campaigning for exclusive breast-feeding for the first six months of a baby’s life, it hasn’t done much to make it easy for mothers. Oftentimes mothers have to fight a bitter battle alone to successfully breast-feed exclusively for six months. They fight with their parents and in-laws, have to change doctors to find one that supports breast-feeding and is not a marketing minion for a giant formula producer and have to find information about the many pitfalls in breast-feeding (milk changes flavor, baby with tongue-tie, how to effectively express breast milk at the office).
I did my crusade almost entirely alone. I breast-fed my son exclusively for six months before he started eating solid food. I breast-fed him until he was 2 years old, but I complemented the milk with UHT or pasteurized milk once he turned one. Except for a very occasional mild fever and runny nose, he has never been sick. He is now 3 years old.
I am proud, of course. But I believe no mother should ever experience that kind of battle to do something as natural as breast-feed. It should have been easy even for a working mother like me.
Problems should have involved only initial nipple cracks, sleeplessness and regulating the diet. It should have not involved dealing with an evil doctor who said there were no vitamins in breast milk (it really happened, ask my husband), parents who accuse mothers of being “trendy” in insisting on breast-feeding at the expense of the baby, or searching for information alone at night (thank God for the internet and mothers’ online forums) about problems with a baby who turns out to have a tongue tie.
I heard stories from friends who struggled even harder. And some failed.
And where is the government when hospital workers say mothers must immediately give baby formula because their breast milk is not enough (mostly they lie)? Where is the government when employers say you have to take maternity leave six weeks before delivery, leaving a mother with only six remaining weeks of leave with her baby?
Where is the government when a doctor says a baby has to drink 250 millimeters of “gold standard” formula per drink six times a day? Where is the government when grandparents say every single time your baby cries that it is obviously hungry and your breast milk is not enough? Where is the government when a lactation consultant, instead of offering sympathy and encouragement, tells a mother that she does not produce enough breast milk because she is not happy with her baby?
Those instances really happened. They happened in the 1990s and in 2004 before the 2009 Health Law, but it also happened in 2013 and I’m sure at this very moment somewhere in Indonesia, where roughly 4 million babies are born each year.
Data shows that 96 percent of mothers breast-feed their child at some point, meaning almost all Indonesian mothers have an intention to give breast milk. But only 42 percent of the infants are given breast milk exclusively for six months, meaning every year there are roughly 2.3 million mothers who for some reason stop before the baby reaches six months old.
I’m sure there are some mothers who choose not to continue with breast-feeding. I don’t want to pass judgment on them, because while breast milk is the best, formula does its job too. I was fed formula too, and I am quite healthy.
I know of cases of bullying of mothers on social media because for some reason or another they do not breast-feed. It is a serious problem for a mother’s well-being, but right now I want to focus on the government’s role first.
I acknowledge that the government has made much progress in policymaking, with the 2009 Health Law ensuring a mother’s right to exclusively breast-feed her baby, by subjecting those that try to derail six-month exclusive breast-feeding to punishment.
The government has also issued supporting regulations, for example, a health ministerial regulation on procedures on imposing administrative sanctions on health personnel, healthcare facility operators, producers and distributors of formula milk.
But what many mothers and I have found in reality is that when it comes to giving our baby the best, the regulations are proven to be paper tigers and we have to fight the uphill battle alone.
Happy World Breast-Feeding Week.
