I was watching PBS last night and caught a commercial for breastfeeding promotion by the New York State Department of Health.
The video shows a woman happily shouting, “I’m 40 pounds thinner!” She then holds up maternity jeans, “These were my pants and now I’m down to a size 8 again!” Cue hair flipping and waist circling. She continues:
I didn’t starve myself and I didn’t go on a fad diet. So what helped me get back to my target weight? I breastfed my baby!
While I really appreciate the Health Department’s catchy and attention grabbing pro-breastfeeding message, I can’t possibly buy into this particular commercial. Sorry love, I highly doubt you lost 40 pounds due to breastfeeding. You lost 20 pounds of fluid, 10 pounds of baby, and maybe the rest from breastfeeding plus an active lifestyle of running after your toddler. But you know, you didn’t have to lose anything.
The video’s narrator goes on to explain that breastfeeding burns up to 500 calories a day (that’s like two hours of aerobic exercise!), and ends with, “while it’s good for your baby, it’s also great for your body.”
Breastfeeding is great for your body. It reduces the chance of developing certain cancers, helps delay the return of menstruation, and is free to boot. But the commercial promises an ideal standard of beauty. Why does she have to be a size anything?
New mothers have so many pressures related to the baby — the last thing they need is a media source promoting what they should look like right after birth, or even 18 months later. I can’t decide if the message is being deliberately ignorant or if it’s just really playing up the statistics that breastfeeding does help accelerate postpartum weightloss.
At least the $1.6 million for this campaign wasn’t all for this one commercial.
October 19, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Asalaamu Alaikum
I can attest to the weight loss. I could always fit into my old clothes pretty fast.
October 19, 2010 at 11:08 pm
I too, can attest to the weight loss. What they don’t tell you is that yes, it does burn mucho calories- however you’ll be so stinking busy nursing that you won’t have time to eat anything
October 19, 2010 at 11:26 pm
There are so many layers to this. It’s depressing that they’ve resorted to use the “yummy mummy” motivation for women to breastfeed but even more depressing that it’s probably the most effective motivator. I read somewhere about people being less likely to take up smoking if they were told it made them look old and ugly compared with being told they could get lung cancer.
October 19, 2010 at 11:59 pm
I also lost most of the baby weight, but not necessarily in the places I expected. And I certainly didn’t lose 40lbs. Which is an emphasis that the commercial really pushes.
I think Tasmiya has hit it on the head with “yummy mummy” motivation. And perhaps it is an effective motivator, as sad as that is.
There’s also the popular belief that breastfeeding really ties you down that perhaps the advertising is working against. I’ve had more than one mom tell me that they didn’t breastfeed because they wanted to eat (or not eat) whatever they wanted, and could lose more weight faster by putting the baby on formula and having more time to hit the gym every day.