Slimy Subliminal Sabatage

Like a lot of women my age, I get the news online. I scan headlines and read articles that interest or impact me, people and places I love, health, etc. I occasionally watch news channels like CNN, but they drive me nuts with the flying text and wild graphics. I can't stand those "news" shows like Nancy Grace (who is so much crazier than her caricature on Saturday Night Live it's scary). I do watch my local news channel to find out what's happening in my area, and I often watch Nightly News on NBC with Brian Williams. My parents always watched NBC's evening news when I was a kid, so I guess it's a holdover. I usually make it through a broadcast without too much aggravation, but not last night.

The big health story was about new findings that women can prevent prematurity by taking folic acid supplements for a full year before conceiving. The March of Dimes wants to get the word out that all women of child-bearing age should take the supplements every day because you never know when you could get pregnant. Interesting study, legitimate organization's recommendation, so what's not to like? I'll describe the opening of the piece; see if you can spot the problem: While the narration starts, we see a new mother in her hospital gown, cradling her newborn. She is gazing into the baby's face while feeding her a bottle of formula (one of those little premade bottles they have in hospitals). The title flashes on to the bottom of the screen, just below the baby and bottle. It reads, "Healthy Start".

Did you spot it? Did you suddenly have the urge to rush out and buy your baby formula? Does NBC get money from formula companies? I don't know if they do, but they might as well. They could just have easily shown this piece with the mom holding her newborn. I'm not optimistic enough to expect them to show a woman breastfeeding her baby on national tv, but since feeding had nothing to do with the information, why not steer clear of it? Do they honestly not understand the difference between breastmilk and formula, or are they actively promoting the fake stuff? Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization have goals they've set for initial breastfeeding rates at hospitals (they have goals for continuing breastfeeding too, but we're dealing with just making it out of the gate). Flashing the words "Healthy Start" over a woman formula feeding her brand new baby in the hospital makes it normal and acceptable. Hiding breastfeeding moms makes breastfeeding strange and secret.

Okay, so I've ranted about the irresponsible news, but what about the mother. I could not believe that she could look at the camera and say that folic acid was soooo important to her because she wanted to give her baby the best health...good luck with that.