Thai Nipple Hazard Or The Dying Culture Of Breast Feeding In Thailand

All right, slap me for this topic choice, but it’s a serious one: The endangered culture of breast feeding in Thailand. Which is closely related to one of the weirder Thai laws. The law governing and regulating the covering of the female nipple.

To please our human needs, I wanted to start a column portraying and all but coy Thai girls with polite, aesthetic nudity. Well, just a thought. I therefore approached a female Thai webmaster who’s quite familiar with online posting of photos of beautiful Thai girls.

The first response I got: “Actually, I thought it was illegal to show nudity in Thailand. All the cheesecake magazines keep the girls just barely covered. Thai Penthouse is the only one I know of that has shots with some nudity.”

And my reliable Thai female webmaster goes on: “And I don’t know how they do it. Maybe costs them a lot of money paid to the right people? Not really sure about it.”

The more though you try to hide or cover up something, the more apparent and tempting it becomes, doesn’t it. But even publicly breast feeding mothers risk the ire of Taliban-like purists.

Overzealous puritanism is not the only, but a (!) reason why there are hardly any breast feeding mothers in a country adoring anything that has to do with children.

In Thailand only the best is good enough for children. People do anything to give their children everything. Why no breast milk?

“When breast is best!“, reads a recent article in the Bangkok Post quoting UNICEF: “Only 5.4 per cent – or around 43,000 of the estimated 800,000 babies born in the country each year – are exclusively breastfed for the first six months.”

Astonishing. According to UNICEF this is the lowest exclusive breastfeeding rate in Asia and one of the lowest in the world.

The official explanation being that Thai mothers “think that infant formula is just as good as breast milk, which is far from the truth. Nothing can compare with the benefits babies get from their mothers’ breast milk,” says a UNICEF doctor.

Blame indoctrinated shames, attributed feelings of backwardness and the simple difficulties a mother is facing when trying to breastfeed her child.

And the article goes on: “Numerous studies have shown that breastfeeding is also very good for babies’ neurological development, and that breast milk can raise a child’s Intelligence Quotient (IQ) by 2-11 points, contributing to higher educational achievement.”

I’m not saying. I’m just saying.

Oh, here’s a Thai educational video on “self-sufficiency,” in case we’ve missed something:

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Comments

13 Responses to “Thai Nipple Hazard Or The Dying Culture Of Breast Feeding In Thailand”

porntip on August 24th, 2008 9.26 pm

Thai women work too much, they have no time for breast feeding.

And nipples can get swollen or hurt, it’s not only pleasure.
Global Voices Online » Breastfeeding in Thailand on August 24th, 2008 9.59 pm

[...] is worried that Thailand has the lowest exclusive breastfeeding rate in Asia and one of the lowest in the [...]
chang dek on August 26th, 2008 5.21 am

Breast feeding in Thailand goes tits-up!
chang dek on August 27th, 2008 3.27 pm

It’s a bit icky!

Breast feeding furore rages on in the UK!
BangkokDan on August 27th, 2008 4.50 pm

You’re truly fascinated by the topic chang dek.

Interesting take on “wet-nursing” – never heard of it before!

BangkokDan
chang dek on August 27th, 2008 9.31 pm

Just keeping abreast with that topic …
chang dek on December 30th, 2008 5.00 pm

BreastBook protesters: Thai women could go to Palo Alto for pointers on emancipation:

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5417278.ece
The Ad, Mirror Of Society on March 16th, 2009 10.32 am

[...] of cultural monitoring at the Ministry of Culture, just wasn’t yet aware of the ad. But how much more nipple can you show without actually showing [...]
Mark Lamerton on March 16th, 2009 11.15 am

I think this is one of the reasons why the average IQ of school leavers in Thailand is only 86 – according to the study by The Ministry of Education two years ago.
BangkokDan on March 16th, 2009 1.48 pm

I was fed with powder milk.

BangkokDan
Mark Lamerton on March 16th, 2009 2.10 pm

Oops. Well – I’m sure it’s only one of the reasons.
chang dek on May 26th, 2009 10.33 pm

Happy to see you’re expressing renewed interest as a mammal with your breast feeding public service announcement.
chang dek on October 2nd, 2009 10.30 pm

A pointed reminder Dan:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20091002/wl_time/08599192746500

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