Exercising my first amendment rights

Policy Wonks
U.S. Government

August 5, 2007

Re: Breastfeeding rates

Dear Wonks:

Seriously, how stupid are you?

I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but some keys to successful breastfeeding include time, support, education, and understanding.

Under current U.S. federal statute, paid maternity leave doesn’t exist. Women cobble together vacation time, short-term disability, unpaid leave, and/or paid leave from generous employers (clearly only at the will of the employers, because they are not required to do).

Maybe someone hasn’t explained it to you, but breastfeeding a baby is a job.  A hard one. There is the potential for it to be hugely rewarding, but at the same time it’s an enormous commitment. Nights, weekends. Sore nipples. Thrush. Engorgement. It’s a learned process–but instead of learning it when we’re young and confident, as we are when we learn to walk, read, or ride a bike, we have to do it when we’re overwhelmed with the responsibility for a brand new life. If you think that three weeks or six weeks or even the 12 unpaid weeks allowed by the FMLA, for which, of course, not every employed mother is qualified and even fewer can afford, is enough to put a large percentage of moms and babies on the blissful path of six months of exclusive breastfeeding, it’s not.

And when women come back to work, exactly when and where are they supposed to pump milk? In the bathroom? In their cubicles with half-walls? On their 10 minute breaks? On the factory line?

And thanks but no thanks for the heaps of free formula,* coming at expectant and new moms from every angle. Bought some pantyhose at a popular maternity chain? Here! Free formula! Had your 36 week check at your OB? Here! Free formula! Had your baby in a hospital? Here! Free formula! Why is this ok? Because the pharmaceutical lobby says it is? Are you new here or have you always been so guillible?

Where are the free home visits from lactation consultants? Where are the coupons for free nursing bras? Where are the free double-electric breast pumps? Where are federal statutes protecting nursing moms from harrassment? If the federal government wants to push the rates up to a respectable level, where is the federal support?

Clearly a lot of women, even college-educated, upper-middle-class white women, the ones who are most likely to nurse, according to the statistics, for long periods of time don’t understand how lactation works. If they did, they wouldn’t give formula bottles at night and hire overnight baby nurses for a month. Yes, they’ll be well rested–as much as it’s possible to be well-rested with a newborn baby!–but dollars to donuts they won’t have nursing babies at 12 months. Which is the ultimate recommendation of the AAP, dontcha know.

So you government peeps keep wringing your hands, setting unrealistic goals. Don’t get me wrong–I’d love for 60% of American babies to be nursing exclusively at three months and 25% at six months–in three years, no less–because I absolutely believe that it’s what’s best for them. But it’s never going to happen without the support and infrastructure for moms.

How about universal paid leave for 12 months? How about real lactation education? How about fewer surgical births? How about nixing free formula? How about real, tangible benefits for nursing? Tax breaks? Personal chefs? Something?

While we’re at it, how about making abortion accessible for the young, poor, and rural women (who are most likely to use formula, according to the report) so that motherhood becomes a choice instead of an eventuality? Hey, even better, how about real sex education for teenagers, including a full range of birth control options, instead of the feds abstinence-only line, which is so abhorrent that some states have actually turned down federal funds so they can truly educate on the topic?

But, really, I digress.

If you government drones want to know how to help moms reach breastfeeding goals….ASK THEM, THEY’LL TELL YOU!

Cordially,

One Tired Ema

–who knows that she is one lucky dog to have been able to walk away from a job where pumping would have been very difficult

–who has the best and most supportive husband, mom, doula, friends, and pediatrician in existence

–whose greatest achievement in her 32 years of life is that her two children, between them, have had zero ounces of formula and will, please G-d, meet or exceed the two-year nursing recommendation of the World Health Organization and UNICEF.

* Just to clarify: formula is not inherently bad. There have always been some mothers who, for whatever reason, are not able to nurse, and their babies have to be fed. In prior centuries this fell to a wet-nurse. In the past few generations it has become the domain of formula companies, who have far better marketing departments than the wet-nurses.