美国国家公共电台 NPR--The baby formula shortage is prompting calls to increase support for breastfeeding

The baby formula shortage is prompting calls to increase support for breastfeeding

Transcript¹

Parents are scrambling² to find baby formula. Factories are working around the clock to make more. And military cargo³ planes are airlifting formula from overseas.

Often overlooked, though, in the race to fill the gap left when a big formula factory closed due to suspected contamination is the most natural alternative: mother's milk.

"If we did more to support breastfeeding, we wouldn't be in this mess," says Dr. Melissa Bartick, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that most babies be fed exclusively with breast milk for the first six months. But in 2018, only about one in four babies born in the U.S. met that target.

There are a variety of reasons families turn to supplemental formula or stop nursing altogether. But Bartick says aggressive marketing⁴ by formula makers⁵ is partly to blame.

"The formula makers would just give tons and tons of free formula to the hospital to try to sell their brand and have the hospitals send the mothers home with gift bags full of formula, so if they run into any problem at home they just pop in a ready-to-feed bottle in the baby, and that starts the mother becoming dependent on formula," Bartick says.

Some hospitals now restrict formula giveaways in an effort to encourage breastfeeding. But the $55 billion formula industry finds creative workarounds, in the U.S. and abroad.

"Frankly⁶, they have way, way more money than us," says Bartick, who has held leadership posts in the American Public Health Association and the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee. "And we can't fight that."

Bartick began researching and promoting the health benefits of breastfeeding after she gave birth and ran into roadblocks at the hospital while trying to nurse her child more than two decades ago.

"I thought it would be sort of a maternity⁷ leave project, but here I am, 23 years later, still working on it," she says with a rueful laugh.

Half the formula sold in the U.S. is paid for by the federal government to support low-income families though the Agriculture Department's Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. Babies that receive that subsidized formula through the WIC program are less likely to ever breastfeed than those who don't.

In addition, the U.S. government has fought for decades against restrictions⁸ on overseas formula marketing. When the World Health Organization adopted a non-binding code of conduct to limit formula promotion⁹ in 1981, the United States cast the lone¹⁰ vote against it.

This year's shortage has cast a harsh new spotlight¹¹ on the formula industry, though. The Federal Trade Commission has launched an inquiry¹² into how a handful of companies came to dominate the market. And Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who oversees¹³ the WIC program, acknowledged the need for a more robust¹⁴ supply chain.

"The challenge for those of us in government is to figure out ways we can learn from this experience," Vilsack told reporters last week, as he greeted an Air Force C-17 carrying 78,000 pounds of formula rushed in from Switzerland.

"We're not as resilient as we should be," he added.

Breastfeeding advocates say the best way to build resilience is obvious.

"The breast is the shortest supply chain," says Kadee Russ, an economist¹⁵ at the University of California, Davis.

Russ is quick to acknowledge that not every parent can breastfeed, or wants to. But while 84% of new mothers start breastfeeding, six in ten stop earlier than they'd like. Russ points to a variety of factors, including too little training from health care providers, too few pumping options at work, and too little paid family leave.

"It's a little bit demoralizing when you have a baby and you're talking to your friends in these other countries and they're going to have a year of leave to nurse their children and you don't," Russ says. "It's not easy to breastfeed. Mothers need support. It's not an easy process. It's work."

Dr. Bartick argues that boosting breastfeeding rates would bring substantial health care savings¹⁶, since nursing babies suffer less from ear infections, diarrhea, obesity¹⁷ and other ailments¹⁸.

But Russ notes that building the economic case for breastfeeding requires a more inclusive kind of accounting¹⁹.

"If you buy formula, that goes into GDP as a transaction," she says. "Breastfeeding isn't [included]. And in fact, what may show up in national economic statistics is that you may be working less."

Russ says it's short-sighted to count the economic cost of expanding paid leave, for example, without considering the offsetting²⁰ benefits of increased access to breastfeeding.

"I think that it's important to understand that breast milk is part of food systems," Russ says. "It is a supply chain in itself."

Boosting breastfeeding rates won't solve the immediate²¹ formula shortage. But the memory of empty store shelves may prompt some families to take a second look at formula's original competition.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

4 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

5 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

7 maternity   

n.母性，母道，妇产科病房；adj.孕妇的，母性的

参考例句：

• Women workers are entitled to maternity leave with full pay.女工产假期间工资照发。
• Trainee nurses have to work for some weeks in maternity.受训的护士必须在产科病房工作数周。

8 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

9 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

10 lone   

adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的

参考例句：

• A lone sea gull flew across the sky.一只孤独的海鸥在空中飞过。
• She could see a lone figure on the deserted beach.她在空旷的海滩上能看到一个孤独的身影。

11 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

12 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

13 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

14 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

15 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

16 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

17 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

18 ailments   

疾病（尤指慢性病），不适( ailment的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His ailments include a mild heart attack and arthritis. 他患有轻度心脏病和关节炎。
• He hospitalizes patients for minor ailments. 他把只有小病的患者也送进医院。

19 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

20 offsetting   

n.偏置法v.抵消( offset的现在分词 )；补偿；（为了比较的目的而）把…并列（或并置）；为（管道等）装支管

参考例句：

• Dealers, having concluded a forward contract, should always hedge with an offsetting contract. 外汇经营商在签订了一项远期合同之后总是应进行套头交易签订一项相抵合同。 来自辞典例句
• Where does Germany think offsetting shifts into greater external deficits might occur? 在德国看来，这么大的外部赤字应该转移到哪里？ 来自互联网

21 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。