Similac Wants You To Know They Won’t Judge You For Buying Formula

I would never call myself a lactivist, but I do get a little suspicious when a huge corporation that makes its money marketing formula to mothers jumps on the “no judgement” formula message.

Similac partnered to conduct a survey that found that 95% of moms feel “negatively judged” on their parenting decisions: “The online survey, which included responses from more than 1,100 moms with at least one child under five years of age, found that moms feel most judged on decisions related to parenting approaches, work and infant feeding.”

Similac claims it wants to empower moms – I’m assuming by letting them know that it’s A-Ok to buy their products. Well, I’m paraphrasing. They actually say, “The StrongMoms Empower campaign, hosted by Similac, is a call-to-action to create a more supportive and less judgmental environment to empower moms to be confident about the decisions they make for their children and families.”

Look, I think it’s great to push a message of non-judgement when it comes to the ways in which women need to feed their infants. I’m just a little wary when it’s coming from Similac. It’s funny, I know a lot of people feel judged by breastfeeders and feel immense pressure to breastfeed. I just have a hard time understanding this because I had such an opposite experience.

I practically had to beg to nurse my first child. Although I had stated adamantly that I intended to breastfeed, the nurse in the recovery room insisted he be moved to the nursery – away from me – and given formula immediately because he had low blood sugar. Thank God my midwife was there to test his blood sugar again and prove that it was perfectly fine. Although I had a sign on his crib that said “breast milk only!” every night when I was looking exhausted recovering from my c-section, a nurse would offer to take him to the nursery and give him a bottle. I thought that was kind of shitty since I clearly wanted to exclusively breastfeed and my exhaustion and their repeated offering may have swayed me from my desire.

When we were checking out of the hospital, the nurse handed me a giant goody bag. It had a “Similac” tag on the side. I said, “Wow. What’s in that?” She replied, “Different goodies for new mothers!” I said, “I really don’t want formula, so you can keep any formula items in there and give them to someone else.” She turned over the sack of goodies, poured them out, and handed me an empty bag.

What? No Lansinoh? No breast pads? No numbers for lactation consultants? If everyone was so hell bent on women breastfeeding, why was there no support for it?

I definitely don’t think women should be judged for formula feeding. But I don’t need a corporation that makes their bottom line by pushing formula telling me that. I’m not an idiot. That kind of marketing just makes me feel icky and taken advantage of.

(photo: Amazon.com)