Tit for Tat: Tell Lawmakers It's Time to Mandate Breastfeeding!
By Stefanie Duncan Fetzer
I think we should urge our legislators to MANDATE BREASTFEEDING. Now, I realize it's a personal decision and some mothers feel they can't do it for various reasons. However, in the interest of public health, this is a move we should make given the health benefits and number of lives that could be saved. A study was just published in the Lancet heralding the pros of breastfeeding, both for mother and children. It posits that if we could raise breastfeeding to nearly universal levels, we could save upwards of 820,000 lives per year!!!
I realize that breastfeeding may be challenging, inconvenient or seemingly impossible for some people. Frankly, I don't care. As a mother, you should sacrifice everything to ensure the health of your child, as well as improve the situation for the Greater Good. I breastfed twins with little difficulty, so I find it hard to believe that everyone can't do it. The REAL instances where a mother cannot breastfeed a child are so few and far between that I almost don't think they exist. We can develop a medical exemption for mothers who truly can't successfully do it.
I don't think children who aren't breastfed should be able to attend public or private school - I am still considering how I feel about formula fed homeschoolers. It's not fair to the kids who have been breastfed. They shouldn't be exposed to the disease carrying kids who weren't breastfed and didn't receive the early 'vaccine' of breastmilk. Again, in the very rare instances where breastfeeding was truly impossible, we can issue medical exemptions. But, we will be closely monitoring the doctors who issue those exemptions and if we feel that they are giving them under false pretenses, we will work to get their medical licenses revoked.
We will implement a system where pediatricians are rewarded for keeping a patient base that is primarily breastfed. If a pediatrician falls below the threshhold, we will penalize them financially through withholding insurance bonuses and kickbacks. In fact, we will encourage pediatricians to kick those patients out of their practices who refuse to breastfeed. We don't want those kids in the waiting rooms, unprotected, and spreading disease!
You can bet your bottom dollar, if there is a scourge of sickness running through a population of exclusively breastfed children, we will blame it on the formula feeders. Even if the formula feeders do not currently have (or have never had) the sickness in question. Every. Single. Time. And we will ensure a media bias that eliminates these facts. Every. Single. Time.
Additionally, I want a database that tracks all formula fed children. We have a right to know where these kids live and go to school so that they can be avoided. I know this sounds like a HIPAA violation, but it is a matter of public health so HIPAA does not apply in this situation.
Let's be real. Mothers who won't make the sacrifice to breastfeed their children must not really love their children anyway. And they are pro-disease. And probably fringe conspiracy theorists. Why won't they listen to the science!? A representative from the Gates foundation has this to say about breastfeeding: "I always characterize it that this is not some second-rate intervention we're trying to push on developed worlds, but this is really state of the art, the gold standard intervention that's relevant anywhere in the world." (link to article in comments)
If you've made it this far on this post, I hope you understand that this is primarily satire. The situations are real and what those of us who, for whatever reason, have chosen not to vaccinate our children, face on a daily basis. Doesn't feel very nice does it?
Stefanie Fetzer is a warrior mom who is committed to getting the word out about the quiet erosion of our health freedoms. She is a fierce protector of her family (and yours) and dreams of a day when all people stand together against corporate tyranny. You can find her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stefanie.duncanfetzer
British Autism Mother,
I think a lot of restaurants and school cafeterias still use aluminum cook and bakeware.
Posted by: Linda1 | February 01, 2016 at 10:04 PM
Very powerful and rather accurate paralleling perspective that hopefully brings some degree of compassion from some not disposed to understand vaccine reluctance!
I also fear that the tendency to legislate and compel behavior for the "greater good" would actually lean towards banning breastfeeding. We've already seen research suggesting the interruption of breastfeeding in the developing world to promote greater (rotavirus?) vaccine efficacy, with seeming little consideration for the overall risk such a practice might introduce for these infants.
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | February 01, 2016 at 03:48 PM
Some historical pointers regarding aluminium (UK spelling):- Before WWII the very latest thing was ..... aluminium saucepans! In the UK during WWII it was considered patriotic to hand in these aluminium saucepans for recycling into aircraft, etc. After the war, aluminium came back into use and I remember in the 1960s my mother having a set of three aluminium saucepans and a milk pan. When the pans became stained she would boil up a piece of rhubarb (think oxalic acid) to remove stains. Eventually, in the late 60s these pans were replaced by stainless steel. Supposition:- what was the cumulative effect of small amounts of aluminium being absorbed by us human beings? Are we looking at yet another fragment of the so-called autism puzzle?
Posted by: British Autism Mother | February 01, 2016 at 03:25 PM
Your satire brings home the incredibly biased situation selectively vaccinating or non-vaccinating parents face.
If there is any consolation at all it might be that they only have to worry about discrimination and not aluminum on the brain. Recently I have been reading Dr. Shaw's work and the undeniable fact that aluminum in childhood vaccines can/and probably does migrate into the brain. A friend asked me what I was up to and I told her about the vaccine wars. She said she wished she hadn't given her now post-college age daughter the HPV vaccine. I said, yes, it contains aluminum that migrates into the brain. How do you get it out of the brain she wanted to know, and I had to say that I didn't know. What happens when a whole generation of vaccinating moms are going to their pediatricians and asking...how do I get the aluminum out of my child's brain. I wonder if then those parents who didn't vaccinate and took the heat will think, well that is one less thing to worry about. I didn't join in the herd and now I know I did the right thing... no filaments of aluminum in the brain cells. Whew...
Posted by: kapoore | February 01, 2016 at 02:06 PM
I enjoyed reading this, Stefanie :)
The big difference, of course, is that mandated breastfeeding does not come with the same list of risks that accompanies mandated vaccinations, i.e. a list of permanent injuries which includes: chronic illness, lifelong disability, and premature death. Quite the opposite list for breastfeeding.
Our bought and corrupt government officials continue to refuse to embark on an education campaign regarding risk-free, proven, inexpensive, and common-sense measures to protect, maintain, and enhance the health, development, and well-being of our children, such as: breastfeeding for as long as possible; hand-washing before and after specific activities; staying home when sick; avoiding others who are sick; eating nutrient-dense, organic foods; avoiding toxins, including pesticides, toxic cleaners, and items treated with flame retardants; avoiding pharmaceuticals as much as possible; getting plenty of rest and exercise; drinking untainted water, which includes non-fluoridated water; not over-scheduling which induces stress; and providing a safe and loving environment and home and beyond at all times.
Isn't it ironic (more like tragic) that many of the items on the risk-free list of ways to induce health is the avoidance of numerous government-approved products? That is very telling, and reminds me of the oft-used satirical line: "We are from the government, and we are here to help you." HA! NOT! Rule of thumb, if the government has approved something, and even more so if they're recommending/promoting/mandating it, STEER CLEAR of it...RUN the other way!
Appreciated your great writing style, Stefanie! Hope to read more by you in the future here on AoA :)
Posted by: Laura Hayes | February 01, 2016 at 01:02 PM
Lol! But if this were to ever really happen, it would probably go the other way, banning the breastfed kids. After all, formula makes $$& and breastfeeding is free and less convenient to companies.
Posted by: Joanna | February 01, 2016 at 08:26 AM
Great post showing the hyprocrisy. Of course, the same industry that makes vaccines also makes infant formula, so we're more likely to see BOTH being mandated. Actually, there has been an at least 60 year intensive marketing campaign to get rid of breastfeeding. Decades ago, it was called the infant feeding wars (interesting that we now have the vaccine wars). While government programs have given lip service to the benefits of breastfeeding, Pharma has run rampant inundating society with misinformation and targeting women during pregnancy with "educational" materials and free formula samples designed to trip them up. It is a well known indisputable fact that formula feeding does kill hundreds of babies in the US every year that would have lived had they been breast fed, and has sickened many more. Literally millions of babies in developing countries have died from artificial feeding. Yet you don't hear Paul Offit, Dorit Reiss, Art Caplan, Surgeon General Murthy, and the CDC proclaiming that children have a right to be breastfed (and they do). Why? According to that special Lancet issue on breastfeeding, the projected formula market will be $70.6 billion by 2019. In the US it was $3 billion in the 1990's.
http://www.thelancet.com/series/breastfeeding
And when people point to mortality rates in the prevaccine era (actually post too) they fail to factor in the effect of infant feeding.
This book review of _Milk, Money and Madness_ by Naomi Baumslag, has a lot of interesting history:
http://www.diet-health.info/en/100001/papers/6184/politics/Book-review-of-Milk-Money-and-Madness-by-N--Baumslag
Posted by: Linda1 | February 01, 2016 at 07:16 AM
Well written Stephanie, seems to be an excellent mandate.
Should anyone know those attending the Iowa caucuses today please ask this question.
....Autism in the United States is now nearly 50 times more common than polio 60 years ago.
SIDS peaks from 2-6 months when infants are given nearly 27 vaccines which have had no product liability since 1986.
Vaccines are suspected to cause both of these disasters.
Should the CDC vaccine schedule be mandated for all American children or should parents have a choice with medical procedures for their children ?
It would be nice to see some "on camera responses" by the candidates.
Posted by: cmo | February 01, 2016 at 06:58 AM