Green Options

New York state government finally got back to work and has passed a law to help encourage breastfeeding.

Interestingly enough, the same week, a mother was pushed into breastfeeding in a family restroom at a Brooklyn Ikea store. (Maybe those lawmakers spent too much time bickering before passing the law?)

The press release by Senator Malcolm A. Smith said the bill was passed because of,

The recognition that many women forgo the option of breastfeeding their child, despite the health and economic implications of using formula. Oftentimes, women who forgo breastfeeding are those who can least afford it—low-income women, whose child was often placed on formula shortly after birth, without their knowing.

Senator Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) has worked for years on the legislation.

This is good for baby and this is good for mom.

So milk-filled boobs have their own Bill of Rights. Does that mean breasts can sport firearms (finally!)? Not so much. Here’s what this new bill includes:

Many of the regulars at Eco Child’s Play chimed in to discuss a feminist’s disregard of breastfeeding.

Breastmilk’s benefits don’t outweigh that of formula, she claims, or at least there are only tiny benefits.

While almost 74 percent of babies in the U.S. are breastfed at birth, only about 21 percent are breastfed through the recommended year. That means many, many parents turn to formula at some point.

But a new comprehensive British study shows that formula-feeders are poorly informed and supported,

Mistakes in preparation of bottle feeds were common.

Now, while we could pull the, “Well, I never measure how much I breastfeed wrong” holier-than-thou stuff, we have to recognize that some parents will formula-feed. We don’t want them to do it wrong!

I consider myself a lactivist. I mean, if there is truly a place in the world for a woman who thinks that babies should be fed what nature made for them, instead of the breastmilk from a distantly related species.

That means I know that breastmilk is simply better than formula.

But now an author and feminist says that we should question the breastmilk/formula debate. Is breastmilk really better, or are the differences so minute that it doesn’t matter what you put in baby’s mouth?

Joan Wolf was interviewed by the Times in the UK, where she said,

The evidence to date suggests it probably doesn’t make much difference if you breastfeed.

She says that many studies contradict one another, and others which show no discernible difference in health benefits. There are numerous claims about breastfeeding, she says, which can’t be proven:

A group of Michigan moms have stepped up to feed a baby boy whose mom died shortly after birth.

Baby Moses Goodrich was in desperate need after his mom Susan died of a rare amniotic fluid embolism. Breast is best, of course, but the hospital didn’t have any breastmilk available for the little guy. The grieving father didn’t know where to turn.

Then he got a call from a family friend, Laura Janowski, who was still nursing her 1-year-old. Professor Goodrich made the good decision,

That’s when it clicked in my head. I wanted the baby to be nursed. That’s something that Susan would have wanted.