Test Your Breastfeeding IQ

How parents feed babies depends a lot on economic and political forces,  dominant cultural values surrounding infant behavior, attitudes toward women, and beliefs about parenting. 

Answer the following true and false questions and test yourself on how much you know about the social and cultural context surrounding breastfeeding in the United States.  (Many of the issues raised are also applicable to breastfeeding in other western countries.)  Click on the link at the end for the answers.

1.  In the U.S. women who give birth at home are more likely to find breastfeeding difficult. 

2.    Having a doula at the birth often improves a woman’s ability to get breastfeeding off to a good start.

3.  Close to 20,000 hospitals in 150 countries have earned the designation of being “Baby –friendly,” the result of instituting 10 steps to promote, protect and support breastfeeding.

4.  Formula companies target marketing at times when women are most vulnerable, such as when breastfeeding is known to be the most difficult.

5.   If a state has no legislation about nursing in public, women may not be allowed to do so.

6.  The economic value of women’s breast milk is calculated and included in the national Gross Domestic Product. 

7. The cost of purchasing breast milk from a milk bank is approximately $3.00 an oz. 

8.  The Federally funded WIC program, Women, Infants and Children, a supplemental nutrition program of the U.S. government, is the largest purchaser of infant formula in the world. 

9.  Ninety percent of babies around the world sleep with an adult and for almost all of human history babies have slept next to their mothers.  

10.  The United States conforms to standards created by The International Labour Organization (ILO) concerning maternity leave and time to breastfeed or express milk during work hours.