Breast Only? “No Way! Too Risky”

In my last blog, I already explained that one of the most common misunderstandings in China is that one believes that the newly delivered mom doesn’t have any milk in those first few days post partum. Not only the newly delivered mother and her family have misconceptions about breastfeeding, the medical staff isn’t always helpful either when it comes to encouraging mothers to breastfeed only. I talked to a pediatrician who was head of the children’s department of the largest children’s hospital in the city of Taiyuan. She is a real breastfeeding advocate. She told me that when her daughter-in-law had a baby, she helped her to breastfeed only… with success, but not without the necessary resistance. Her own colleagues told her: “We would never allow this for other mothers…” When I visited a maternity hospital in Taiyuan, I heard similar comments from the staff: “No one breastfeeds only in those first days, too risky. Babies get jaundiced and we can’t take the risk of the baby not getting enough milk.” Result: almost all babies are given the bottle in those first days after birth, almost all mothers start breastfeeding late (second day or even later), and when they start feeding, they don’t breastfeed often enough (3-4 times, perhaps 4-5 times a day) and not long enough (5-10 minutes) and they often only offer one breast per feed. No wonder many mothers complain of having “not enough milk”. I have seen with my own eyes that supplementing with formula in those early days make initiation and continuation of breastfeeding harder, but not impossible.