For something that is meant to be free, breastfeeding has become an expensive endeavour. If you’re a new breastfeeding mom, you probably bought or had purchased for you: a breastfeeding pillow ($30-$60), nursing bras ($20-$100+), reusable and disposable breast pads ($5+), a breast pump ($60-$400), breastmilk storage bags and bottles. You may have also purchased a nursing shirt, nipple cream, how-to books and DVDs, and a nursing cover. Other nursing gear you might have includes nursing necklaces (starting at $20-$30), bracelets, and a milk saver that collects leaking milk from the side you are not nursing on ($25). There is also the Vitamin D supplement marketed by formula companies that is now recommended for all breastfed babies. I thought I had seen it all until I was at the pharmacy last week and saw a pamphlet for a special Similac drink for pregnant and breastfeeding moms. Formula for breastfeeding moms! Clever marketing if you ask me.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve fallen prey to the clever marketing of these products too. My latest nursing bra (and most comfortable by far) cost a pretty penny. Let’s just say it will be getting lots of daily wear. I ordered a nursing necklace online and wore it only a handful of times. I have a shelf full of “nursingwear” shirts that seldom get worn. I have the remnants of three breast pumps stashed in my kitchen cupboard. My well loved nursing pillow has been retired from its place on the living room couch, but I doubt I will be able to part with it anytime soon. The funny thing is, I know that I don’t need all of these things to breastfeed. A stretchy sports bra, a shirt that I can easily pull up, and a few minutes outside in the sun each day (for Vitamin D) are all that I really need. The consumer in us wants to believe that the accessories are necessary, but the reality is that breastfeeding really is a free lunch. Contrary to popular belief, women don’t even need to eat particularly well to breastfeed. Research has found that, “there is very little difference in the milk of healthy mothers and mothers who are severely malnourished” (see http://www.llli.org/nb/nbmarapr04p44.html). So put down that glass of Similac Mom and start enjoying those little people who could care less about what colour nursing necklace you have on or how fast your new pump can work.
Do you think breastfeeding is getting too expensive?
Felicie is a teacher turned work at home mama to two busy little angels, aged 22 months and 4 and a half years. She is a proud member of La Leche League Canada and has helped to organize three World B[..]
Great post Felicie.
Like anything even remotely associated with children, breastfeeding has become over-commercialised. You can have a sample of your breastmilk turned into a plastic pendant, even or buy an Itzbeen personal timer device to determine if your baby is due another feeding (because the nuzzling, pecking and eventual crying apparently aren’t enough cues).
I do find it a bit deceptive when breastfeeding is touted as a “free” alternative. It is definitely much less costly than formula. But you do need some things. Definitely a good book on it and perhaps a pump and bottles. I spent a fair chunk of change on a pump only to discover that it didn’t really work with my larger breasts and that hand expressing was much easier – and free!
My babies wouldn’t take bottles, so they were a waste of money too.
I did buy a couple nursing bras, again, as a large breasted woman the sports bras just weren’t good enough. The nursing nightwear and t-shirts, though, were a waste of money.
The only thing I found really disconcerting was the cost for nursing pads. I leaked. A lot. It got to the point where I could fill a bottle with what leaked from one breast while I nursed on the other. The reusuable cloth pads weren’t absorbent enough for me and the only disposable ones that were comfortable were the most expensive. Still $14 every two weeks or month was not a lot of money, especially compared to the cost of formula.
Also, looking at the financial aspects, there’s the cost of your time. If you’re using formula that’s a lot of time spent mixing the formula, warming it and cleaning and stearlising bottles. The absolute best thing about nursing is waking up with baby at 2am and laying back down with baby nursing rather than heading to the kitchen to open the fridge, heat the formula, screw on the nipple, etc,etc. Time is money, as they say.
I tend to agree with you. It isn’t breastfeeding that’s getting expensive, per se, but the gadgets and accessories that we’re being “told” we need.
I do wish that breast pumps were not as expensive, or that they were also tax decductible expenses in Canada (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110210/ap_on_re_us/us_breast_pumps_taxes). There are mothers who genuinely need access to these pumps, because they must exclusively pump, or because they are back to work and don’t have the luxury of pumping multiple times a day. Manual expression and hand pumps are viable choices for some, but not for all (e.g., I was never taught how to manually express milk and my manual pump nearly damaged my nipples). In this case, I think it’s more important to talk about Medela, the company with the most popular pumps, who has been in violation of the WHO code of marketing (http://www.mothering.com/health/medela-violation-who-code-marketing-breastmilk-substitutes) and whose commercial pumps are problematic due to their “open-system” designs.
I also think proper nursing bras are a necessary expense for some, due to proper support and ease of use. Regular bras, no matter how “stretchy,” never did it for me (and still don’t, nearly 13 months later). Again, it would be great if those were not as expensive (I recently spent $140 on two Bravado Bliss bras) and if we had access to better suppliers in NL!
I really enjoyed this post. It gives us a lot of food for thought re: marketing, especially at a time when new moms (and moms of newborns) are at their most vulnerable!
Well put! With my first child, I went out and bought all the “gear” I thought I needed for the baby in general, as well as for breastfeeding. It seemed that there was an awful lot of gear required to have a child. Along comes child number 2 and I bought 2 nursing bras for convenience, and a new car seat – I had since learned that a crib doesn’t get used, nor the high chair, the boppy pillow, the nursing shirts (those slits are in the wrong spot and are the wrong size!), or the fancy pumps – hand expression worked better than plastic! As a family we had far more fun enjoying ourselves because I then had the freedom to nurse my baby anywhere – during an ice fishing trip or out on the beach, without worrying whether I had all the required gear with me.
Dear Felicie,
If someone could only tell all of us moms where we could buy some “common sense” we might all make our best investment!
Until that pot of gold is discovered, we’ll definitely need the advise of our “veteran” friends!
Thanks for the perspective!
Jan
It’s so easy to get caught up in consumerism, especially while waiting anxiously for the arrival of our first child. My best friend advised me early in my pregnancy that all I needed was diapers, some kind of small blankets (new or used)and my own bed to sleep in.
While trying to convince my husband it was time to start a family, I told him the first year was ‘free’ because I would breastfeed and we’d get used clothes and equipment from our numerous friends who had just finished having babies.
However, we quickly got swept up in purchasing all the equipment and gadgets. To this day our 2 1/2 year old has never slept in his crib, we didn’t even open the ‘playpen’ box, had way too many clothes and 3 BF pillows is too many.
I could have done without my favourite ‘boomerang’ pillow, but loved it all the same. That pillow, used receiving blankets and the nursing bras were all we really needed. Too bad I couldn’t listen to the advice of my best friend. Some things we can only learn from personal experience.
Breatfeeding is FREE. FREE. FREE. FREE. Did I mention it was free? You need nothing, other than a breast and a hungry baby. There is no magic here. Yes, a breast pump helps, and they are expensive, but if you can latch on (!) to a friend with one, so much the better. These should be made available through public health for hire.
Hey Janet and Dee Dee!
Thanks for the comments! You’re right- I think it is about common sense and freeing yourself up to just enjoy your baby and breastfeeding without all of that stuff!
And I thought of something else you definitely don’t need while breastfeeding- a clock! The best piece of breastfeeding advice I ever received was to stop watching the clock (especially in the middle of the night!).
Great comments Dara, Shannon, Penny, and Lisa! And I agree- breast pumps should probably be made more accessible. It would be awful if a baby didn’t get breastmilk for lack of a breastpump. Everyone has a different set of circumstances to deal with.
I think that a lot of the baby products available are definitely not necessities. I know when I was pregnant with my first baby I felt like I needed to get one of everything, but the second time around I bought next to nothing. I do find the nursing pillow a big help if I need my hands free, but other than that my only purchase was a pump. A good one is not cheap, but having some time to myself is priceless! As for nursing bras I was told that they were an essential item but I found it impossible to find one in my size and I’m doing fine so far in my regular bras.
I guess if we lived somewhere where we weren’t bombarded with advertising we’d know the only real essential in breastfeeding is breasts!
Oh and I agree about ‘stop watching the clock.’ No matter what I do my baby won’t nurse for more than 5 or 6 mins so why bother keeping track?
I was both disheartened and pleased to read a recent news item about a school district in the states. They wouldn’t allow students and teachers who were nursing to bring their babies in during breaks to nurse them – very disheartening. But I was pleased to read that the nurses office at each school is equipped with an electric pump for students to use -apparently many of the students were taking advantage of this. Definitely I would have been happier to read that they supported breastfeeding by allowing actual breastfeeding, but I do have to at least give them kudos for having a school supplied pump and encouraging young mothers (and teachers and staff too!) to maintain a breastfeeding relationship by providing the free access to the pump. Still a ways to go, but I don’t think this is something any schools in Newfoundland do.