Lovely positive story about breastfeeding in the Daily Mail

[sherby]

wow

I am a bit uncomfortable about this story which has gone all over the world a few times now....one of the comments on the story on the web is 'what happened to the baby when SH had gone'? Why was the mother not able to feed? Was someone enabling her to feed? Mothers do not normally have no milk at a week....if this is the case, they need help to fix it.

Yes it was interesting wasn't it.... on the one hand, so nice to see a story not making out that cross-nursing was weird and freaky. OTOH wasn't there a bit of a whiff of neo-colonialism about the whole thing? And as Tiktok says, what happened to the baby and mother once SH was no longer there dispensing her milky Hollywood bounty?

Totally, Kathy - and what did the mother feel like, sitting there while the kind, rich woman fed and cuddled her baby?

The baby did not look malnourished, by the way. He looked like a normal, healthy, plump newborn....the mother looked bereft.

Do you think overall though, that it has helped to boost the image of breastfeeding? Bearing in mind, the average person would not ask the same sort of questions you just have tiktok?

Actually, no, Stretch. I think it exaggerates the warm cuddly feelings about breastfeeding, which we have enough of already, and minimises the practical questions. It makes breastfeeding out to be a fragile thing - no questions asked about why (a perfectly healthy looking) African mother was suddenly unable to breastfeed - and dodges the issue of 'what happens next?'

agree with you tiktok

I think it gives the wrong message "Oh the baby was a week old but breastfeeding wasn't working" - the mother doens't look very happy about the whole thing, does she?

It's all a bit WTF?

And yes he looks like a STRAPPING one-week old baby - the middle shot with him over her shoulder he looks about five months old

there is no way he is a "poor malnourished African baby"

it's a bit yuck

Ok, was just wondering. Really was hoping that this wasn't just a pr stunt, but it sure looks that way now you've put it like that.

So, why on earth did she do it then??

i thought about this last night after seeing the video. It made me think that maybe i hadn't gotten all the information, stuck here in the Gulf with dodgy internet connection.

I think in the long run, this plays into the hands of those who say that you have to have optimal food (like Salma can afford) in order to produce optimal milk.

So if you eat chips and bangers from Iceland as a mainstay, you can't make good milk.

Gosh I disagree (in a very respectful manner [wink) Tiktok. SH might be Hollywood-based but she stressed her Mexican roots. The Mexicans are more colonised than colonising. I think she is a more accessible and more plausible advocate for breastfeeding than many WASPy Hollywood types. As I say, said with huge respect......... I get what you are saying about it being momentary but at least it is positive.

I don't think it was a PR stunt. I think her feelings were genuine if misplaced.

There is a kind of racism that exists, which I have felt, that is akin to what has happened here. It exists in a lot of people who would by no means see themselves as racists because they can 'bond' with others of other races. Even very cogent people have it in them and I think this falls into that category. Here it manifests itself in part that they see themselves as a saviour to that 'lesser' person.

It is hard to put succinctly so I won't try as this really isn't the time or place.

Yes, I felt a mixture of all these things.

My first thought was how natural it seemed but my second was what happens next.

Do we know what happened next btw?

Giveusabreak: I agree that she is much more of a bfing advocate than many other of the hollywood types. She is Mexican - but a very privileged Mexican before she ever came to hollywood.

In Mexico, a lot of racism exists. The more 'indigena' you are, the lower down the social (and racial) ladder you are. The foundation of Mexico is European types coming to save the indigena from eternal damnation. It is another version of the Great White Hope story.

I loved that she can put another child to her breast which is not her. the blackness and africanness of the child is beside the point. I wonder how this story would have played in the US if she had gone on a humanitarian mission to Lousiana or Mississippi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and did the same for an American baby - white one preferably. Babies died because of that crisis because they were not breastfed.

giveusabreak - I know about Mexico and colonisation, and it wasn't me who made the colonial link....but she is still a rich woman from overseas, and I doubt very much that the African mother was aware that she was anything other than that. The power gap is there...and on the whole, sorry, I don;t think the whole incident is positive

The point of the story isn't about the baby though, its about the Hollywood star, the baby is expendable - the DM doesn't care about the baby

I watched the video and the baby is one year not one week

No - the baby is a week.

SH's baby is a year.

the video says:

"...decides to make a point in breastfeeding a sick little boy, who, at one week old, was born, remarkably, on the same day as her daughter"

But....the pic where she is cuddling the baby has to be of her baby....no way is that baby a week old!

Why don't you think it was positive Tik?

Read my posts, Ilove - it's all explained!

That's never a week old baby in those pictures.

Well it's definitely not a MALNOURISHED week old baby, that's for sure

I thought the film showed her bf a week old baby. It had that "new baby" look about it. But then I assumed that the baby she was cuddling over her shoulder was another one, because they were so obviously completely different sizes.

I assumed she had cuddled more than one baby and the film was cut to show this.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't feeding someone else's baby affect their milk supply in the same way as topping up with formula would?

The breastmilk would obviously be better for the baby, but surely the mother should be helped to establish her own supply rather than some rich woman from Hollywood charging in and taking her baby and breastfeeding it in the name of publicity?