Harpers - The Tyranny of Breast Feeding

[Catherina]

18. I understand better now

I think I missed a lot since I couldn't read the whole article. I agree with what you wrote. The militancy, any militancy really, disturbs me.

The corporation where I worked had nursing rooms for mothers coming back from a generous maternity leave + FMLA after months so they could continue nursing their babies but the company was doing well and it's employees were mostly White, graduate-school degree types with solid scientific skills. It was a wonderful thing to see new mothers bring their babies to work, or even without the babies, go to the nursing room to pump out their milk for later.

Lovely. But what low-income woman working in a fast-food chain, a factory, or driving busses for a living has such a fabulous employee *perk*? This is where I go full circle and become downright old-fashioned. There's no acceptable reason that it takes 2 salaries to keep a household afloat and then forces a lot of woman to view formula as a *necessity* instead of a choice.

Those militants need to confront the root cause (economics) before getting so judgmental.