AIDS

Rochelle Casavant

Socioeconomic status is a barrier to bottle feeding instead of breast feeding. Baby formula is very expensive and many low income mothers can not afford it. Instead it is very cost effective for them to breast feed because it doesn’t cost anything and it is easy to access. Also, in many third world countries, like Africa they do not have access to clean water and using the water they have with formula will make their child very sick. In America we have running water to almost every building but in other countries the women have to walk miles to just get water. Walking to get water is not feasible when you have a crying child. Cesarean sections(c-section) are very expensive and if you don’t have insurance most people can’t afford it. In many third world countries there is no choice but to have the baby vaginally because they have very limited resources when it comes to doctors and nurses.


A. Cesarean delivery instead of vaginal delivery

I. Infection of the abdominal incision.
1. Being a mother brings many obstacles and is life changing. Just to take care of the baby is an all day job but then if you have a c-section you have a huge abdominal incision. The incision is painful and requires you to not lift heavy things like the baby and to not twist your body. This makes it very difficult to take care of the babies day-to-day needs. Also, the incision has many potential problems like infection. Taken care of properly the incision can heal nicely but taken care of in an unclean way is very dangerous and will cause an infection which will cause a delay in healing.
2. “Numerous factors have the potential to delay healing and cause infection. These should be identified as early as possible, ideally pre-operatively, to optimize post-op care and recovery. Over a period of 35 weeks, data was collected from 715 women undergoing c-section. Of these 80 developed surgical incision infections and for 57 symptoms were not identified until after discharged(Gould 2007).”

II. Obesity
1. A major problem in America is obesity. Being obese and pregnant puts you at high risk for surgical site infections after c-sections. Due to the excess belly fat it is hard for the incision site to heal due to the extra fat and weight.
2. “Obesity has been associated with a higher rate of infections after c-sections. It puts greater mechanical stress on the wound and this delays healing, even when there is no sign of infection(Gould 2007).”


B. Bottle feeding instead of breast feeding

I. No weight reduction
1. Breast feeding helps mothers to take off the weight they gained to conceive the baby. Many women fear getting pregnant just because they do not want to gain weight. Let’s face it we live in a world where beautiful means being a size 0-5 so many women have a hard time choosing to have a baby so if they do they want to breast feed right away to help lose the weight.
2. “Believing that breast feeding allow mothers to get back their figure more easily and protects from breast cancer is linked to the choice to breast feed. Indeed, mothers that breast feed return faster to pre-pregnancy weights and may be protected from developing breast cancer (Chabrol etal).”

II. Bad, unmoral mothers
1. Breast feeding is a healthy, bonding experience for mother to child. So mothers who do not breast feed are seen as depriving their child what they need. Many mothers are seen as uncaring and lazy if they don’t breast feed. The first day of colostrum is very boosting to the babies immune system but beyond that there a very few differences with bottle or breast feeding.
2. “The relationship between the moral reasoning factor and bottle feeding may reflect guilt in the mother if she doesn’t breast feed. It was found that many mothers associate bottle feeding with feelings of guilt and failure. Many mothers feel an obligation to breast feed or to be a perfect mother. They also may feel inadequate or fear of failure to breast feed (Chabrol etal).”
References
Chabrol, H., Walburg, V., Teissedre, F., Armitage, J., & Santrisse, K. (2004) Influence of Mother’s Perceptions on the Choice to Breast Feed or Bottle Feed: Perceptions and feeding choice. Journal of reproductive and infant psychology 22:3 August 2004 pgs.189-198. Retrieved Jan. 30, 2008 from cinahl database

Gould, D. (2007) Cesarean Section, Surgical Site Infection and Wound Management. Nursing Standard 21:32 April 2007 pgs.57-66. Retrieved Jan. 30, 2008 from cinahl database.