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Thursday, January 5, 2012

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Prescriptions REQUIRED for Infant Formula? Say WHAT?

Someone from the Target Nurse-in facebook page that was created as a meeting place for the recent nation-wide protest that happened last week, made a suggestion. The suggestion, one I'm still trying to wrap my brain around, was that infant formula be available only via prescription, and this person not only believed formula be available only through a doctor's order, but has already initiated a process to get this in place -- she said she was in the process of getting a petition together to begin gathering signatures. Now, I won't immediately go into my ideas on this one since to be fair, I'm sure she had all the best intentions in the world.

I'm sure she's a nursing mother, or someone who has nursed one child or more and knows the benefits of breastfeeding and the bond it creates. That's fair to say, I'm sure. Good for her! Maybe she knows that infant formula is unfairly marketed to women, often in lower socio-ecomic statuses, communities Of Color, and that its ingredients are no match for mother's milk. Yes, this is all possible. As the staunch breastfeeding advocate she is, it is not unreasonable to assume this.

Here are just a few other details I can imagine.

She is probably a white woman. A heterosexual white woman married to a heterosexual white man. She is probably a stay-at-home mother, and her formally educated husband, no doubt, goes to work everyday -- well, Monday through Friday at least to you know, bring home the bacon. Every morning he probably pulls his sports car, maybe a BMW, from their three-car garage attached to their nice big house that sits inside of a gated community -- probably in the hills, and drives to his job. On the way he makes several cell phone calls to discuss things like rates, finances -- interest, before arriving at the office where he sits behind a computer all day and drinks wine and expensive meals at lunch time, engaging a corporate business partner on ways to increase profits and productivity. Probably.

This beautifully crafted white family with a stay-at-home mother and a formally educated husband probably have people helping out who have English as a second language, probably have Brown skin or darker, and come on a weekly or more frequent basis to mow the lawn, and help the stay-at-home mother tend to her children, leaving their own in the care of others. The beautiful white family eats dinner together -- a meal not prepared by the stay-at-home mother. Oh no. She is there on the sidelines -- in the background of whoever it is making this dinner. She may be off sewing, nursing her children in another part of the nice big house, out shopping or who knows, maybe she's at a breastfeeding support group, where all of the other women -- the other stay-at-home mothers whose husbands are also at work, sit in a circle and talk about how wonderful it is they can nurse their babies. They've never had any issues with a baby not being able to latch, low milk production, or any other social or health barriers. Great!

This couple probably has top-of-the-line health insurance -- the best one you can think of, and an extremely small co-pay, if one at all. If there's ever an emergency trip to the hospital they have no problem paying a deductible, or even GETTING to the location of course, since their fancy, fast car usually parked in their three-car garage attached to their nice big house inside of the gated community that sits on a hill, can be used at any time. They need not worry about waiting for a specific time of day or a schedule for the bus, walk long distances to the pharmacy, call and wait for an expensive taxi, or worry about the high cost of gas, since funding for all of these are taken care of by the labor of those workers in a rank lower than the husband's, and others -- those who more than likely cannot afford the nice big house in a gated community, sports car that would get them anywhere at any time -- even to the Dr's office, top-of-the-line health insurance -- the best one you can think of, the money for the co-pay or deductible, just the same as this beautiful white family with a stay-at-home mom, her formally educated husband who has a great job, top-of-the-line health insurance -- yes, the best you can think of, with little or no co-pay, and lives inside of a nice big house in a gated community in the hills, with a fancy, fast car parked inside of their freakin' three-car garage.