Commentary Response to “Is Breast Really Best? Risk and Total Motherhood in the National Breast-Feeding Awareness Campaign”

The commentary will focus on Joan Wolf’s literature review of the studies examining the impact of breast-feeding and will direct the reader to other parts of Wolf’s article requiring a critical eye. The central question posed in Wolf’s article is whether the advantages conferred by breast-feeding have been scientifically demonstrated to be of sufficient magnitude to justify a public health campaign that might cause anxiety among women who do not wish to or cannot breast-feed. There are four parts to this question: (1) how great is the benefit conferred by breast-feeding? (2) how great a benefit is needed to justify a public health campaign? (3) are fear-based public health campaigns ever ethical? (4) and did the recently ended National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign induce anxiety in women who do not wish to or are unable to breast-feed? An impressive collection of ancillary arguments and analogies, including the introduction of a construct called “total motherhood, ” are appended to this central issue in an effort to place the primary argument into a world-view apart from the underlying scientific questions. Readers will enjoy assessing the merits of the author’s worldview on their own and should be able to identify those implied or stated facts offered without supporting data (e.g., that breast-feeding increases time lost from work and undermines women’s career advancement). The remarkable statement that gastrointestinal disorders are no longer a sig-nificant problem in the United States is particularly puzzling given that the estimated prevalence of acute gastrointestinal distress is conserva