A photo of a mother in New York City

This photo was in an article in National Geographic. The article mentions breastfeeding along with this photo, but in the lower left corner of this photo is a tin of formula.

It is astonishing to me, that I have never in all my years as a lifetime subscriber to National Geographic (started in 1976, when I got my first job as a doctor that actually paid me some money, so I have been a member for 48 years). This job was as the only doctor in a small Inuit village in Northern Quebec.

In all those years, I have not seen a single article devoted to breastfeeding. Though some articles (only peripherally having to do with breastfeeding) had photos of women who apparently breastfed, I have never seen (or remembered) a single photo showing a mother with a baby suckling at the breast. As in the attached photo, the mother is holding the baby, but we don't know if she breastfeeds him/her.

I once wrote a letter to National Geographic asking why they never discussed breastfeeding but received no reply.

Come on, National Geographic, breastfeeding is important. It is important to the health of mothers and their babies. It is important in that breastfeeding helps to decrease the effects of global warning. How?

1. Decreasing the need for artificial baby milk, which requires large amounts of land to feed cows to make milk. Even soy formula requires lots of land to grow soybeans
2. In the Western world, we have the notion that all mothers in "Third World Countries" breastfeed. It's not true. I have worked in Honduras (Central America), in Peru, and in South Africa (the Transkei) and even the poorest women were convinced that formula is better, only to have their children die of diarrhea or pneumonia and other infections. As an aside, when I worked in the Transkei, the Swiss nuns of the "White Hospital", every Wednesday would give out "free" formula. The lineup to get the formula went around the block and seemed not to end.
3. And what is the result? More pregnancies, hoping at least a few of their babies would survive.
4. And by the way, even in rich countries, like the USA and Canada, we have our own Third World, where babies sick from not being breastfed.

Please consider buying and recommending my new book: What Doctors Don’t Know About Breastfeeding

Print version and ebook version on Amazon:?https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09WC2HCC6

Print version on Praeclarus site:?https://stores.praeclaruspress.com/what-doctors-dont-know-about-breastfeeding-by-jack-newman-and-andrea-polokova/?showHidden=true

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