I’m terrible with double negatives.
But here’s an article, The Backlash to Breast is Best, that responds to The Case Against Breastfeeding, which I wrote about a few weeks ago. The writer gets to the heart of the matter (where I was attempting to go), which is that we say “breastfeeding is best for your baby” and then we give absolutely no support for it as a society:
We tell women that breast is best, we tell them to breastfeed exclusively for the first six months, we even tell them it will raise their kid’s IQ (and we should give that a rest), and then we send them home with formula samples, or with a baby whose throat is too sore to suckle, or a mom whose milk is delayed because of surgery, and we don’t teach technique, and we are offended when a woman breastfeeds in public, so we make her feel housebound, and we don’t give a mother and her partner paid leave, and we send her to go back to a workplace without on-site childcare, and so her only alternative to formula is to plug her nipples into a machine, and if she’s lucky she gets periodic breaks and a “non-bathroom lactation room” in which to pump, and if she’s not she gets a toilet, and so on and so forth.
It’s no wonder women are ready to burn their nursing bras.
I find that this particular medical recommendation with little public policy support (especially in the workplace) is just about useless. You want women to breastfeed their kids? Mandate paid leave.
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