March Carnival of Breastfeeding: Race and breastfeeding

Welcome to the March Carnival of Breastfeeding!  You can find links to more posts on the topic of breastfeeding and race at the bottom of this one.

A Cambodian American Perspective on Breastfeeding

Whenever I am asked about my race/nationality, I tell them that I am Cambodian.  Never mind the fact that I have lived in America for more than three quarters of my life and can barely make myself understood when I speak Khmer (the official language of Cambodia).  No matter how Americanize I become, my family and my looks will always declare otherwise.

When I became a breastfeeding mother, I observed the issue of race and breastfeeding with interest.  In America, many mothers are asked if they will breastfeed.  From my Cambodian culture, every new mother is expected to breastfeed.  Formula is still a luxury in a non-industrialized country, so women breastfeed without a second thought.  Not breastfeeding would be considered unnatural.

However, because of our Americanization, many young woman from my Cambodian culture are selecting to bottlefeed instead.  I have heard the following tales from within my own family: "I did not have enough breast milk" or "I had to go back to work."  It seems that cultural expectations have changed for some newly immigrated young woman.  The dominant American culture has successfully introduced formula as a viable, and sometimes desirable, substitute for breastmilk.

Despite proven generations of breastfeeding women, just the fact that being in America for no more than a few years is all that it takes for formula feeding to fast become the new normal.   Even with a legion of successful breastfeeding women in their community as their resource (their mothers, grandmothers, aunts, cousins, friends, etc), the young women who immigrate to America for a better future are bottlefeeding their newborns for one reason or another.  Obviously, life in America promotes bottlefeeding.

I do know that these young immigrant women do try to breastfeed first.  Our Cambodian culture is one where breastfeeding is still the expected norm.  However, bottlefeeding is gaining popularity.  Breastfeeding, although natural, may prove challenging and formula is so readily available in America.

Although there are resources out there to help women overcome breastfeeding challenges, I have not come across any that are promoting breastfeeding among the very small percentage of ethnic minorities in America.  The medical community does not reach out in any significant way to the under-serve communities of immigrant South-East Asians.  This lack of cultural sensitivity when addressing breastfeeding issues with Cambodian Americans and others allow for the propagation of bottlefeeding as a norm.

Perhaps my background puts me in a different situation than some other young woman from my native culture.  My American college education makes me a better advocate for myself and I am somewhat tireless about utilizing whatever resource I know of in my quest to be a breastfeeding mother.  However, even I have encountered a period in my breastfeeding history where bottlefeeding looked like it was absolutely necessary.  But after utilizing the resources available in my community, I quickly realized that the doubts I had about my ability to breastfeed were based on misinformation.

The community hospital outreach hotline and La Leche League warmline are wonderful breastfeeding resources.  I was able to have my questions addressed by experienced professionals or breastfeeding mothers.  I was able to breastfeed my son due in part to their help.

It did come to my attention that these two resources will continue to be under-utilize by Cambodian Americans due to the following factor: not one of them were staffed by anyone that wasn't a native English speaker and from what I can tell, all were white.  Building trust with a breastfeeding mother is key to breastfeeding promotion.  The difference in race is a stark contrast that is not easily overcome and can easily impede relationship building.  Until Cambodian-American women see themselves represented in the roles of lactation consultants/educators or as an integral part of the La Leche League community, breastfeeding will be on the decline.

Lastly, Cambodians traditionally treat the post-partum mother-baby couple as a sacred unit.  They practice the art of confinement.  The breastfeeding mother spends the entire first month in bed with her baby.  Her only priority is to care for and breastfeed her child.  She is not allow to set foot out of bed for the first month.  She cannot even take a shower.  Plenty of special food is brought to her.  Her mother/MIL/aunt/etc tends to the household needs.  The husband takes over her usual duties if there are no other female to help.  The mother has the time to rest, to enjoy her new role, and to build a lasting breastfeeding relationship with her newborn.

I wish for that kind treatment for all breastfeeding mothers worldwide.  Showering, perhaps, being the exception.

Sadly, the tradition of confinement is on the decline -- hardly practiced at all in America.


Here are posts you might be interested in:

Tanya:  Why we need more diversity among lactation consultants
Luschka: Breastfeeding and Race: South Afric
Shlonda: Breastfeeding in Ghana

Welcome, Carnival of Breastfeeding readers!

The Gift of Life: Breastfeeding During A Time of War

I was born in the late 1970's in Cambodia.  At that time, the country was being ravaged by revolution and genocide.  My parents, like others at the time, were sent to a labor camp and endured starvation and malnutrition.  When my mother gave birth to me, she speaks of only having a ration of  rice porridge to eat daily during designated meal times -- grains of rice cooked in hot water.  My father risked his life to poach fish from the nearby river to feed us.  The war ended soon after my birth and my parents fled to a refugee camp.  However, the people overseeing the camp eventually led truckloads of refugees, including my parents and me, into a desolate mountain where many people died from landmines roaming the mountainside in search of food, water, and help.

I survived as an infant through such hardship because my mother breastfed me.  In a time where an estimated 20% of the population died, I survived even when food was scarce and doctors and medicine could not be found.  Breastfeeding sustained my life and my health so that I can have an opportunity to give birth to and experience the daily joy of breastfeeding my own 6-month-old son.

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Check out these posts on this month's theme (updated throughout the day):

Breastfeeding Moms Unite! - The Gift  That Keeps On Giving

Elita @ Blactating - The Gift of Confidence

The Milk Momma - Breastfeeding: My Baby's Gift to Me

Momma's Angel - The 12 Gifts of Breastfeeding

Christina at Massachusetts Friends of Midwives - The Intangible Gifts of Breastfeeding

Tanya Lieberman - A Gift I Never Expected 

Goal Setting

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After giving birth to Luke, I had a difficult time getting him to take the breast.  Essentially, he did not receive a feeding until nearly 18 hrs after birth.  I was so anxious because my goal was to breastfed him for at least six months.  I kept trying to get him interested in latching at the breast, but all he wanted to do was cry and turn away.  I refused to have him supplemented.  Finally, on the second day, he latched!  It was an amazing joy to see my son feeding from my breasts.  However, our difficulty did not stop there.  Although he was latching most of the time, we were having problems with trying to position him so that his latch was deep enough.  I started experiencing a lot of pain as he was feeding.  The pain persisted even though I asked all the nurses to evaluate his latch and they all told me that it looked great and that breastfeeding was "supposed to hurt at first."  The pain was unbearable at times to the point where I had to clench my teeth and point my toes during some sessions.  My nipples were cracked and blistered by the end of the second day.

However, I persisted.   Each session, I would attempt to evaluate his latch to ensure that I would get the deepest latch possible.  I also worked on different nursing positions because I began to experience terrible back and shoulder pain from constantly being hunched over  as I was nursing my son.

There was also the issue of my over supply and fast milk ejection reflex.  I was so desperate to breastfeed my son but one incident almost made me give up.  It was during the time he was experiencing his 2 - 3 weeks growth spurt.  He was literally on the breast all day long and he kept crying!  I was sure that I somehow had caused my milk supply to diminish from not drinking enough water or from forgetting to alternate to the other breast at each subsequent feeding.  Of course, now I know better.

I did relent to supplement him once.  But after that, knowing the joy I experienced as I was breastfeeding my son, I knew that I would do everything in my power to ensure that my son never received another bottle if I could help it.

And as of this week, I have met my goal of breastfeeding him for six months.  And since we've made it this far, I'm extending the time-frame of our breastfeeding relationship to one-year!