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Time-Strapped Mothers Can't Breast-Feed Babies

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 26, 2008

SHANGHAI, China - With one hand, Yang Aiping held her squirming 4-month-old son amid the crowd in the maternity hospital. With the other, she dug through her purse for the near-empty bag of milk powder that she worried had sickened him.

"Is this brand OK?" she asked, holding up the packet of Bei Yin Mei formula. "I'm still not sure. I don't have time to watch the news."

Nor does she have the time to breast-feed her baby.

The number of Chinese women who rely on breast milk alone to feed their newborns has dropped as working mothers have less time to nurse and have turned to instant formulas.

Such economic pressures have taken China's tainted milk crisis to every corner of the country. They also explain why a country disgusted by an even deadlier fake baby formula scandal four years ago has been so badly hit again.

More than 54,000 children have been sickened by tainted milk products so far. Four deaths have been blamed on the products.

As the scandal grows, the World Health Organization and UNICEF are publicly declaring breast-feeding as the healthiest option for babies.

But it's not an option for many women like Yang, one of Shanghai's millions of migrant workers, who spends most of her waking hours on the job.

Less than two months after giving birth, she stopped trying to pump her breasts before and after work on a construction site and switched to milk powder.

Then the tainted milk scandal broke and, like millions of other parents, she suddenly had to ask whether the formula she was feeding her son might kill him.

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