The Natural Nurser…ahem.
So, here’s a product (thanks Gail!): a ‘breast bottle’ yes, indeed. Very interesting that they use all the breastfeeding talking points, like ‘natural’ and ‘nurser’. A bit irritating. really.
Love,
Heather
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kalirush said,
October 5, 2007 @ 10:06 pm
I think it uses breastfeeding talking points because it’s marketed to women who breastfeed who also bottlefeed, and want to make sure that doing that won’t screw up their nursing relationship too much.
I pumped at work, and I tried one of those things once because my daughter refused to take a bottle- she wouldn’t take it, but still. There is a market for us women who can’t nurse at the breast 100% of the time (because of work or school or whatever) who need bottles that are more nursing friendly.
yvetteyasui said,
October 6, 2007 @ 4:34 am
“Best for baby. Best for you.” Please, stop the lies!
luluandbeans said,
October 6, 2007 @ 4:49 am
I think it’s pretty neat, especially for those who might need to pump so they can return to work…anything that extends the breastfeeding relationship is good with me.
We had wanted to try it because I am finishing my early childhood program at night, and my baby (5mos) refuses the bottle. I wanted to be able to take notes that weren’t drooled on, or torn out of my notebook.
BUT…it’s really expensive (at least in Canada it is) and completely out of our reach.
Otherwise, I totally agree with the comic…it’s ridiculous to think that an actual breast is obscene, but a plastic replica is not? Whatever (rolls eyes).
sapphire_chan said,
October 6, 2007 @ 4:55 am
I really doubt that anyone using a breastbottle would consider breastfeeding obscene. After all, their partner/spouse/SO or employer (for babysitters) is breastfeeding.
treefrog said,
October 6, 2007 @ 6:16 am
Also, check out this one -
http://tinyurl.com/ytorzu
talk about a disembodiment! Is that how we as nursing moms are perceived? Is that all they really think they need to “replicate the nursing experience”?
I think it’s funny.
treefrog said,
October 6, 2007 @ 6:17 am
If the url above doesn’t work, try this one.
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/07/baby_safety/source/4.htm
mamaof5 said,
October 6, 2007 @ 8:16 am
i think that that “breast bottle” is a freakin’ joke. it is still plastic. i get not being able to bf 100% of the time, i deal with that also, but if your baby is fighting the bottle spending a fortune on a fake boob will not make it easier.
it is just so silly. i my ideal world we wouldn’t even need those. it would be great to be able to either take babe to work with you and bf on demand or at the very least be able to have them on sight to bf when needed. i wonder how that would work in a hospital. lol but heck i hardly get time to pump when i am working. freakin crazy!
heather in tucson
nak
amyphilo said,
October 6, 2007 @ 8:23 am
It drives me nuts seeing bottles promoted as natural nursers too. I am not saying I think the bottle itself is a bad idea for working moms, I am just tired of people pretending breastfeeding is like this dirty little secret. The bottle is an icon of babyhood but the mere mention of breastfeeding will make some people angry.
sewathomemama said,
October 6, 2007 @ 9:26 am
i have the original adiri breastbottle. i bought it when i was pg & we used it a few times, including the night my milk came in & my baby wouldn’t latch. dh came up with the idea to pump, so i spent 2 hours pumping, flustered & exhausted. baby boy finally drank some milk from the bottle & we resumed our nursing relationship after my boobs were not so engorged. the new one is a better design, as the original nipple is all wierd & hard at the tip. my son no longer accepts a bottle, which is fine, cuz he’s eating more food now anyway. he only took it a few times, but he was not impressed.
RoseRed said,
October 6, 2007 @ 12:36 pm
I think that they are a good idea. They are mostly aimed at mothers who have been exclusively feeding from the breast for long enough for the baby to refuse a bottle, and are almost certainly going to be filled with expressed breast milk.
I’m posting from the UK, and “modesty” really isn’t a big issue for breastfeeding women - it might be different in the USA, where it does seem as though there is a lot more dismay at the thought of a woman breastfeeding in public.
RoseRed said,
October 6, 2007 @ 12:38 pm
Speaking of breastfeeding in the UK, there’s a nice celebrity story here:
http://www.celebrity-babies.com/2007/10/charlotte-churc.html#more
luluandbeans said,
October 7, 2007 @ 5:30 pm
Holy crap…treefrog that bottle is disturbing. Honestly, if you are going to THAT MUCH trouble to have a bottle made, I mean actually having a stranger take a 3-D image of your breast…why on earth would you not just breastfeed?? I really hope that product never sees the light of day.
But I clicked the “read the story” part of the link…wow. Scary.
analisa_roche said,
October 7, 2007 @ 6:25 pm
We tried the breast bottle nurser with our eldest, who had a terrible time learning to breastfeed, but she wouldn’t take it either.
sapphire_chan said,
October 8, 2007 @ 4:55 am
“I mean actually having a stranger take a 3-D image of your breast…why on earth would you not just breastfeed?? ”
See the difference between us is that I saw that product and thought “great! an easier way to avert nipple confusion and maybe get a baby to eat expressed breastmilk while mom’s at work than using a cup or syringe.”
Think about it, even if the mom isn’t breastfeeding (and it’s *way* more likely that someone buying that *is* breastfeeding except, y’know, when they aren’t *there* thanks to a little thing we like to call “economic reality” (and if you’re thinking “oh, well, there’s always a way to stay home” consider yourself derided as elitist and move on)) the very fact that it’s shaped *like* a breast shows an acceptance that bottles are fake breasts.
sapphire_chan said,
October 8, 2007 @ 4:56 am
Oh wait! sorry, forgot the point to that last bit.
“Which means that it would be an acknowledgement that breasts should no more be covered up for breastfeeding than bottles are for bottle feeding.”
luluandbeans said,
October 8, 2007 @ 5:15 am
sapphire_chan, I totally agree that it would be great for a mom who has to go back to work, or school as in my case, to be able to have a replica of their own breast to prevent nipple confusion and it could probably extend breastfeeding (see my first comment).
But the danger I also see with that bottle is expressed in the comic itself, there is a danger in having bottles that are *just like* the breast because it does perpetuate the myth that all breastfeeding women could pump off in order to plan ahead so they don’t have to actually pull out a real breast where someone’ teenaged boy might see it. As in “Look, there goes your argument for nipple confusion and baby refuses a bottle…this bottle is modelled after your own breast!”
Does that make my point any clearer?
luluandbeans said,
October 8, 2007 @ 5:16 am
Forgot….
My comment with regards to having the 3-D scan done…I could totally see some mama having one of these made because she’s too modest to breastfeed in public, yet completely miss the irony of posing.
Jan Andrea said,
October 8, 2007 @ 7:47 am
I’m kind of surprised to see this kind of reaction to the breastbottle. Sure, in an ideal world, everyone would be able to breastfeed 100% of the time (even the moms who *wanted* to go back to work…?), but that’s not always possible. I consider myself a pretty hard-core breastfeeder (have exclusively breastfed 2 and will do so with my third), but there were times that I wanted to get out of the house *just for me* — I play the violin in an orchestra, and bringing the baby was not an option (and it was only for 2 hours anyway). Our first would not take a standard bottle, so we tried the original breastbottle. He wouldn’t take that, either, but you know, it seemed like a better idea than the standard phallic shape. (I was amused, though, that the copy on the breastbottle was something along the lines of “the same size and shape as a real breast!” when I wear a DDD; the breastbottle was, like, areola-sized for me.) The fact is, sometimes even the most dedicated mothers need a couple of hours to themselves, and if this helps keep their nursing relationship going when they can’t be there — or due to financial concerns, she has to go back to work — why judge it?
That said, it *would* be very hypocritical to use one of these in the absence of a breastfeeding relationship *and* to call actual breastfeeding obscene, but I sincerely doubt there’s a lot of that going on.
ethele said,
October 11, 2007 @ 2:05 pm
I’m a bit late - but I have to agree that the comic depicts an unrealistic siutation. When I’ve seen women using “breastlike” bottles in public, it is usually accompanied by an embarressed explanation for why they aren’t nursing (often they are supplementing after a rough start, and frequently they “top off” with one after using the other). I personally didn’t try breastlike bottles when we taught our daughters to take a bottle since we were well past the main nipple-confusion stage, but it was on my mental list of things to try if the EvenFlo bottles we got for free from my working, breastfeeding sister hadn’t been accepted. I very badly needed to work - we couldn’t afford health care, and our daughters’ state medical ended in a few months.
I think breast-like bottles do the opposite of promote the “bottle can replace breast” myth. Rather, they seem to be used by women with a strong awareness that, for whatever reason, they are choosing second-best. I think they support the idea that formula and bottles are only imitations. It’s one thing to read statistics and ingredients and say, “Oh, right, this is an imitation” when you have little experience with the real thing, and another to actually hold a fake breast in your hand next to your very real breast when buying bottles in the store.
I think breastlike bottles really drive home the “My breasts have functionality!” message. And makes formula-feeding mothers reconsider the fact that they are paying to imitate something they could naturally do better for free.