Judith Warner’s April 2 New York Times op-ed piece, “Ban the Breast Pump,” is sure to stir up a hornet’s nest: Warner comments favorably on Hanna Rosin’s “The Case Against Breast-Feeding” in the April Atlantic.
A La Leche League enthusiast in the early 1970s, I expected to disagree with Warner. I nursed my two babies for a year apiece, and I was a lot like Rosin’s Mama-Nazi playground pals even though I’m at least as old as their mothers. So I was surprised at how much I appreciated Warner’s viewpoint, especially this insightful question:
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?
As both authors point out, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months – that is, no water, no supplements, no formula, no additional food – and breastfeeding with other foods for the next six months, or longer.
That’s easy for the pediatricians to say.
Trouble is, more than half of American mothers of infants work outside the home, and America is one of only five countries in the world that do not guarantee new mothers any paid leave (the others are Lesotho, Liberia, Swaziland, and Papua New Guinea).
Right now the European Union is pressing member countries to extend fully paid leave from 14 to 18 weeks. By contrast, as the Institute for Women’s Policy Research reported in August 2007, “only 8 percent of workers [in the United States] have paid family leave to care for newborns and other family members.” Even the companies ranked among the 100 best by Working Mother magazine offer considerably less leave than needed by nursing mothers: over half allow six weeks or less.
Is anyone wondering why so many mothers feel guilty most of the time? When they’re not too tired to feel anything at all?
Warner and Rosin, who both breast-fed their children, are pleading for common sense. A woman can only do what she can do. She can’t single-handedly compensate for a system that’s stacked against her, though she can work to change it. Warner asks,
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?
To be fair, most companies – especially smaller ones – simply can’t afford to give employees paid time off. A good maternity-leave policy requires government assistance. But back in 1993, when Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act, the majority of Republican members of Congress – the ones mostly likely to support “family values” – voted against it, even though it mandated only 12 weeks of unpaid leave and exempted small businesses. It will be interesting to see if President Obama’s reform-minded administration will champion maternity leave – and if so, how family values proponents will respond.
