No, it's not an attack on breastfeeding.
Apr. 4th, 2009 12:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
velvetpageNo, she doesn't want you to stop breastfeeding. She wants women in America to stop being guilt-tripped into pumping at work.
The key quote, for me - and it's restated further up the article in a different way - is this: Why, as a society, have we privileged the magic elixir of maternal milk over actual maternal contact, denying the vast, vast majority of mothers the kind of extended maternity leave that would make them physically present for their babies?
That's it. Right there. Her hyperbole about relegating the pump to the history books is just that - hyperbole. There are plenty of babies who need that pumped milk to live, and I would certainly not deny any mother the right to do that for her preemie or sick child. Nor do I dislike extended nursing or any of the other variations on nursing that are out there. The problem I see with America's push to get women breastfeeding is that all the push is on the moms. There's very little societal investment in it. There's no paid maternity leave. There's no cultural assumption that the best place for the mother of a child under a year is at home with that child, where they can then nurse their baby as much (or as little) as they want to. There's guilt, and there's resources to help a woman figure out how to "make it work," but there aren't enough resources to actually take some of the pressure off her so she CAN make it work.
I have never seen a breast pump at work in Canada. I work in places where there are constantly women having babies, because teaching is a female-centered profession. I don't know anyone who has pumped at work or even suggested doing so, and the reason the movement hasn't caught on here as it has in the States is that women are on maternity leave when they're breastfeeding exclusively. By the time they go back to work, it's no longer quite that crucial that their babies get nothing but breastmilk. They're getting solids, maybe juice or water, and their nursing has naturally tapered off. And that's the way it should be.
Breast pumps are a wonderful stop-gap measure. They keep preemies alive. They're great for increasing milk supply before the growth spurt so that you've got a supply in the freezer and don't have to deal with OMGsoHUNGRYbaby when the growth spurt starts.
But if the breast pump is ubiquitous in the workplace, it's because the whole culture surrounding motherhood in that place has got it terribly, terribly wrong.
The key quote, for me - and it's restated further up the article in a different way - is this: Why, as a society, have we privileged the magic elixir of maternal milk over actual maternal contact, denying the vast, vast majority of mothers the kind of extended maternity leave that would make them physically present for their babies?
That's it. Right there. Her hyperbole about relegating the pump to the history books is just that - hyperbole. There are plenty of babies who need that pumped milk to live, and I would certainly not deny any mother the right to do that for her preemie or sick child. Nor do I dislike extended nursing or any of the other variations on nursing that are out there. The problem I see with America's push to get women breastfeeding is that all the push is on the moms. There's very little societal investment in it. There's no paid maternity leave. There's no cultural assumption that the best place for the mother of a child under a year is at home with that child, where they can then nurse their baby as much (or as little) as they want to. There's guilt, and there's resources to help a woman figure out how to "make it work," but there aren't enough resources to actually take some of the pressure off her so she CAN make it work.
I have never seen a breast pump at work in Canada. I work in places where there are constantly women having babies, because teaching is a female-centered profession. I don't know anyone who has pumped at work or even suggested doing so, and the reason the movement hasn't caught on here as it has in the States is that women are on maternity leave when they're breastfeeding exclusively. By the time they go back to work, it's no longer quite that crucial that their babies get nothing but breastmilk. They're getting solids, maybe juice or water, and their nursing has naturally tapered off. And that's the way it should be.
Breast pumps are a wonderful stop-gap measure. They keep preemies alive. They're great for increasing milk supply before the growth spurt so that you've got a supply in the freezer and don't have to deal with OMGsoHUNGRYbaby when the growth spurt starts.
But if the breast pump is ubiquitous in the workplace, it's because the whole culture surrounding motherhood in that place has got it terribly, terribly wrong.