WITH WOMAN
Controversy over breastfeeding
doll: is this a step too far?
By Jane Bainbridge
Mixed attitudes towards breastfeeding mean mothers quickly learn which public places are best avoided,
but the launch of a breastfeeding doll has challenged even the most determined breastfeeding supporter.
F
or something so natural breastfeeding
causes a lot of controversy. How is it
that the way in which we were intend-
ed to feed our babies can send some people
into such apoplexy? The newspapers like
nothing better than a story about some poor
mother being moved on for having dared to
breastfeed her baby in public (Troup, 2005;
Anon, 2008).
While hopefully most women get through
the breastfeeding years without having too
many public altercations, as a mother with a
hungry baby to feed you do quickly learn to
scout areas for their suitability. This is prob-
ably why certain cafes and restaurants become
such havens for groups of new mothers—there
is a herd mentality and safety in numbers.
It’s a merry dance mothers have to do:
finding the perfect combination of a good
cappuccino, sufficient space between tables for
buggies, baby-changing facilities and freedom
from menacing looks from staff and fellow
diners alike when you pop your breast out.
For most breastfeeding mothers, bar
the most brave, there are public places that
are suitable and there are those that aren’t.
Everyone has their own criteria. I felt fine
feeding in a café but not a smart restaurant. I
would breastfeed in the park but not on the
underground, I would avoid pubs but that
was before the smoking ban.
Ideally mothers should not have to go
through a checklist like this, but we all know
society has mixed up ideas about breastfeed-
ing. Despite the best efforts of actors like
Salma Hayek, who caused her own minor
storm by breastfeeding a hungry baby in
Africa while on a UNICEF trip (Cable,
2009). In a culture that feasts on every titil-
lating detail of celebrities’ lives there are few
breastfeeding ambassadors. Hayek is rare
in that she is both honest and enthusiastic
about breastfeeding.
While at the point of pregnancy women
are given huge amounts of information on
infant feeding and the message that ‘breast is
BRITISH JOURNAL OF MIDWIFERY, SEPTEMBER 2009, VOL 17, NO 9
best’ does get promoted, is it already too late?
Are women predisposed one way or another?
It is a tough job for any midwife to convince
a young mother that breastfeeding is the best
course of action, when neither her mother,
nor any of her friends, have ever tried it and
she is convinced it will lead to saggy breasts.
If this is the case then surely the answer is for
breastfeeding to become more normalized in
our society across all classes, backgrounds
and gender.
It seems that one of the huge sticking
points in the UK is that for many people it is
impossible to separate the breast from some-
thing sexual. So exposing a nipple or glimpse
of skin is deemed tantalizing even if it is for
the sole purpose of nourishing a baby.
This connection reared its ugly head in the
furore that greeted the news of Spanish toy
manufacturer, Berjuan’s, breastfeeding doll
called Bebé Glotón.
The doll comes with an apron-type top
which the child can wear. The top has two
flower shapes representing a woman’s nipples;
the baby doll stops crying when it is cradled
with its mouth by the flower, and it makes a
noise as if being suckled. Taking the ‘real life’
element one stage further, Bebé Glotón can
then be ‘burped’ after it has fed.
Little girls playing with dolls and pretend-
ing they are their babies has been going on
for centuries—no doubt the cavemen carved
some sort of doll-shaped stick for their daugh-
ters to cuddle. In recent times toy manufac-
turers have injected more and more realism so
that the baby dolls can cry, feed and even wet
themselves. But the feeding element has been
strictly bottle-only, so Bebé Glotón is break-
ing new territory on that front.
It has been interesting reading the com-
plaints. From sexualizing children too soon,
encouraging teenage pregnancy to the whole
apron and doll concept being written off
as ‘creepy’—this doll has caused offence to
many, among them breastfeeding proponents.
Indeed one article quotes a Royal College of
Midwives advisor who has reservations about
the doll (Soodin, 2009).
But before we all rush to condemn this
newborn pretender let’s remind ourselves of
just what an uphill struggle it is to get British
mothers to breastfeed. The Office of National
Statistics undertakes a survey on infant feed-
ing every five years so the most recent figures
available are from the 2005 report (UNICEF,
2009). While there was some cheering sta-
tistics—the proportion of breastfed babies at
birth rose by seven per cent in the UK—there
is still much work to be done. At one week of
age only 35% of UK babies are being breast-
fed exclusively. This drops to just 21% at 6
weeks and by 4 months it is a pitiful 7%.
Bebé Glotón is on first sight a rather
odd concept and maybe it is all a bit literal.
Perhaps a better way for children to play with
dolls and mimic caring, parental duties is to
just have an ordinary baby doll that leaves all
the minutiae to the imagination. But some-
thing needs to happen in the UK to make
breastfeeding the default way of feeding our
babies, not some ‘hippy’ concept performed
by a minority of militant mothers who have to
hide from public gaze in darkened cafes. BJM
Troup J (2005) Breast-feed mum rapped http://www.
thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/191784/Breast-
feed-mum-rapped.html (accessed 24 August 2009)
Anon (2008) Mother banned from breastfeeding at GP
surgery ‘because she wasn’t a patient’ http://www.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1025592/Mother-
banned-breast-feeding-GP-surgery-wasnt-patient.html
(accessed 24 August 2009)
Cable S (2009) Salma Hayek breastfeeds a stranger’s
baby in Africa after the mother runs out of milk
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-
1141584/Salma-Hayek-breastfeeds-strangers-baby-
Africa-mother-runs-milk.html#ixzz0P6BN4G56
(accessed 24 August 2009)
Soodin (2009) Fury over girls breastfeed toy http://www.
thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2576271/Fury-
over-girls-breastfeed-toy.html (accessed 24 August
2009)
UNICEF (2009) UK Breastfeeding rates http://www.
babyfriendly.org.uk/page.asp?page=21 (accessed 26
August 2009)
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