Cake

Breast feed or else? The Times seems to think that women realistically have that choice.

An article in the New York Times this week asserts that “"Just like it's risky to smoke during pregnancy, it's risky not to breast-feed after." Um - wtf? So the implication is that if women don’t breast feed, we are criminally negligent? As Lori Leibovich notes in Salon, the boobie wars are in full effect:

“Yes, it would be great if more women breast-fed their babies. And I guess it's nice that the government is reminding women of the benefits of breast milk. But in their heavy-handed, bullying approach, these ads are like the lactation equivalent of the this-is-your-brain-on-drugs ads of the 1980s. The difference is that nobody has to smoke dope, but many women do have to work. The campaign willfully ignores the reality of most women's lives. The fact is, real barriers, both physical and financial, stand between many mothers and breast-feeding -- a fact the Times quickly glided over. Not one breast-feeding proponent interviewed, for example, was asked to explain how the more than 60 percent of mothers of young children who work are supposed to exclusively breast-feed for the recommended six months. Nor did they comment on the fact that even if a woman is fortunate enough to afford to take the 12 unpaid weeks of leave mandated by the Family and Medical Leave Act, she still will fall short. No experts were asked about the role of race and class in breast-feeding, even though the Times article noted that black women are less likely to breast-feed and that the rate of breast-feeding increases with education, income and age -- presumably because those are the women who have the resources and support to do it.

It's really infuriating. The same government that's warning women that they're risking their children's lives if they don't breast-feed makes it almost impossible to do so by not providing them with mandatory paid maternity leave. The Times interviewed one mother who characterized breast-feeding as a "lifestyle" and admitted that her life "revolves around my kids, basically." But few women have the option to make that kind of lifestyle choice, no matter how much they might want to.”

Amen to that - its about time our society value women’s work, lives, and reproductive choices.