Like Ann Romney, my ex wife breast fed our children and did not work. I think it is more of a culture thing, because like Ann Romney my ex wife is a Mormon and the LDS women don't like to go out to work, they say the more important job is staying at home being a mum. Well thats all very well and quite right for breast feeding and whilst they are young, but not afterwards!! This excuse wears thin after a while, although I do agree breast is best. But for me it turned out to be far more expensive! I got home one day from work to find that they had abducted the children, emptied the house and bank accounts.
My personal opinion is that breast milk can and should be expressed and put in the cooler, a mother should be encouraged as time permits to go back to work. After all money is tight these days and men see enough of women staying at home doing fun things with the kids, running around in nice cars, whilst the husband works hard to keep the family. I know this is about breast feeding, but a certain culture tends to grow around it where often a woman can take advantage, it seems apt to mention it since the article mentions Ann Romney and the fact that she does not go out to work at all. It is rather typical of that culture. And then they feel a man is not good at bringing up the children so the wife has all the power - even to taking away the children. The benefits of breast feeding to me are outweighed by the lifestyle detachment of father from children. A father can give milk expressed just as well as a mother and should be encouraged to do so. The effects of giving birth usually do not last very long, there is no reason for this old role that does not fit into modern society
Researchers have linked breastfeeding with benefits ranging from lower chances of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, to higher cognitive abilities, to enhanced immunity. And unlike pricey formulas, breast milk is free, right?
Only if you don’t count the cost of a mother’s time, says a new study in the journal American Sociological Review.
If the recent backlash over Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen’s comment that stay-at-home-mom Ann Romney “has never actually worked a day in her life,” taught us anything, it’s to not undervalue a mother’s time.
“When people say breastfeeding is free, I think their perspective is that one doesn’t have to buy anything to breastfeed whereas one needs to purchase formula and bottles to formula-feed,” the study’s coauthor Phyllis L. F. Rippeyoung said in a press release. “But, this simplistic view doesn’t take into consideration the hidden cost: the substantial income women often lose when they breastfeed for a long duration. To me, I see it as being highly related to how women’s unpaid work has always been undervalued.”
Given the large number of studies published on the health benefits of breastfeeding, Rippeyoung questions why more researchers haven’t tried to quantify women’s loss of income while breastfeeding. “This is an important omission, given that the majority of women today work for pay, and many work in job environments incompatible with breastfeeding,” her study states.
Rippeyoung and her coauthor Mary C. Noonan found that women who breastfeed for six months or longer (per pediatricians’ recommendations) have significantly greater earnings losses than women who breastfeed for less time or not at all. This larger loss in earnings comes from reduced hours spent working for income.
“We see that the ability to intensively mother via long-duration breastfeeding is class-biased,” Noonan says in the press release. “Women who breastfeed tend to be white, college educated, and married. Additionally, on average, women who breastfeed are more likely to be married to college-educated men, men who can financially facilitate women taking time out of the labor force.”
It makes sense for the U.S. Surgeon General to encourage breast feeding because it can pay off in terms of reducing child healthcare costs. But If the government is going to continue to push for breastfeeding it also needs to push equally hard for policy towards more social and workplace support for breastfeeding women, otherwise the practice’s pro-health benefits will remain in the realm of the privileged.
Photo: Hamish Darby/Flickr
