A Peaceful Revolution: Breastfeeding: The Latest Refuge of Scoundrels

Here in rural Pennsylvania, we have a radio plug for breastfeeding. The government plug features a man speaking with a deep Southern accent, and country music plays in the background.

Why the cowboy pitch? The answer is that highly educated women are already
on the breastfeeding bandwagon. They know the American Academy of Pediatrics
recommends that newborns be breastfed exclusively for six months because it
reduces the incidence of respiratory infections, Chron's disease, diarrhea,
infections, SIDS, botulism, allergies, and even improves cognitive development. And rates of breastfeeding at six months of age rose from 27 percent in 2001 to over 36 percent in 2003.

That's good news for kids, and it's good that the government is promoting breastfeeding with radio spots. But, in case you missed it, there are still a lot of men out there who believe a woman's place is in the home. A hundred years ago, men said women were too weak to work, or too emotional for serious jobs. Seventy years ago, many employers had 'marriage bars,' so any woman who got married (much less had children) could be fired because she couldn't be a devoted wife and employee at the same time. Twenty-five years ago, we heard that employment was bad for children -- if the employee happened to be a mom. Each of these claims turned out to be false, and was gradually rejected.

Breastfeeding is the newest weapon in the war to keep women at home, and it is indeed powerful. Breastfeeding is a good thing to do, but requires a lot of time, as in feeding every one to three hours. Many men and employers are more than happy to accommodate by sending women home. Fathers are often willing to work longer hours at work to support mom, and employers may even offer to take her back once the children are a bit older.

It's not just employers and fathers. Sophie Currier requested extra breaks to breastfeed or pump during her nine hour medical licensing exam. But the request was denied by the National Board of Medical Examiners and, as of last week, by a federal judge. The judge suggested that Sophie put off taking the test until she completes breastfeeding, a strategy that would lose her a residency in clinical pathology at prestigious Mass. General Hospital. The 'stay at home and breastfeed' message could not have been clearer.

For most women, the option of staying home is financially difficult or impossible. For many poor, single moms, staying home is also borderline illegal: 20 states require single mothers of infants to hold down a job in order to receive welfare benefits. Paid parental leave would help, but we haven't heard any of the presidential candidates talking up six full months of paid leave recently.

That leaves only one solid option: pumping breastmilk at the workplace, and storing it for later use. This can be done with some private space and equipment under a lactation program, and many employers have already figured this out. Last year, 23 percent of all employers surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Management, and 91 percent of the Working Mother Top 100 employers had lactation programs.

Obviously, 23 percent is not a majority. We need more. Many state legislatures know this and, while only 13 states have directly addressed breastfeeding in the workplace, a total of 39 states have laws protecting breastfeeding in public and private places, and 10 of those laws were passed since the beginning of 2006.

We really need federal legislation, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney recently introduced the Breastfeeding Promotion Act. The Act would prohibit discrimination against breastfeeding employees, and would partially fund lactation programs. You can help by signing the MomsRising petition in favor of the Act, and I urge you to do so.

Supportive cowboys are good. Supportive workplaces would be much better.

Robert Drago is a Professor of Labor Studies and Women's Studies at Penn State University, and the moderator of the workfamily newsgroup. His latest book is Striking a Balance: Work, Family, Life.

Comments

[jdp1028]

I am not a cowboy and I am a highly educated woman, yet I still found the opening to this article a bit insulting. Are you suggesting that people with Southern accents are not intelligent? I realize this is not the point of the article, but I had difficutly getting past it. Perhaps the same point could have been made without such a stereotype.

[mick3]

Males, chronically jealous of females' ability to bring forth life (so god-like, to them who haven't experienced it), have always made motherhood as difficult as possible. Until the guys grow up, we must use every opportunity to help ourselves in the face of one obstacle after the other. Actually, since men themselves admit that they don't start to grow up until age forty, it would be best if they were kept out of decision-making until well after that. Only partly tongue in cheek.

[Pandu]

Isn't this saying that breastfeeding is being used as a weapon to get mothers to stay with their children? This is getting so weird. American culture is like living in hell. It is no exaggeration.

As Arjuna says in Bhagavad-gita 1:40-43, “When irreligion is prominent in the family , O Krishna, the women of the family become polluted, and from the degradation of womanhood, o descendent of Vrsni, comes unwanted progeny. An increase of unwanted population certainly causes hellish life both for the family and for those who destroy the family tradition. The ancestors of such corrupt families fall down, because the performances for offering them food and water are entirely stopped. By the evil deeds of those who destroy the family tradition and thus give rise to unwanted children, all kinds of community projects and family welfare activities are devastated. O Krishna, maintainer of the people, I have heard by disciplic succession that those who destroy family traditions dwell always in hell.“

[r81801]

How sad we have to lobby for a place or time for mothers to nurse their babies. Sheesh someone might think we americans aren't independent enough. Those babies need to be pulling themselves up by their own boot straps not expecting to be fed.

We spend and flush billions on wars based on lies and can't imagine spending anything on babies and moms. That says it all.

[MarilynBB]

In Canada maternity leave is one year and the mother is paid while on leave. This is not just about the physical benefits but also about bonding with baby. Infants and parents who bond create more stable families. Stable families help create a stable community.

[mamacat]

In an ideal society, giving a mother the option of staying home with the baby for six months would seem like a good idea. Some countries in Europe already make it legal for the mother to stay home with her baby for a year after giving birth. It seems to me to be a question of priorities; somehow it is perceived as OK to spend more than the rest of the world COMBINED on the armed forces, but it is too expensive to have socialised medicine, or a reasonable amount of time off from work for new mothers.
Maybe if we stopped electing Republicans, we could cut taxes and still afford to make our country better.

[jaybird6239]

I'm always amazed at how crazy people get about this topic. To me, it's the woman's right to choose what to do, as I knew many women who did not want to breastfeed.
And for those who complain about not having a facility to pump their breast milk, etc. I worked and breast fed (it was really simple) without any problem. Here's all you need to do so (a room - I used my employers bathroom or anything else available, your hand and a container for the expressed milk). Yeah it's that easy ... just contact LaLeche who will actually send over a rep to show you how to do it manually (so you don't need to buy those pumps that are costly and take so much longer than your hand to get the job done). Why make a big deal out of something that is easy to do!

[fferret]

Pardon me if I see your premise as under-informed. My wife, 15 years ago, gave birth to my daughter and breast-fed her for the next 6 months until she began solid food. She also held down a full-time job, which she returned to shortly after giving birth. They have this marvelous new invention, perhaps you've heard of it? It's called the breast pump. It allows you to pump and store breast milk. My wife went thorugh a couple of them, also feed our daughter directly as time and circumstance allowed.

It seems to me that this article is not so much about breastfeeding as it is about the author's desire to make a connection between government sponsorship of health initiatives for women and his own perceptions of the state of modern feminism. Yes, government is inconsistent in it's approach to women's health, favoring this and condemning that. What organization isn't? (With the possible exception of the La Leche League.) Feminism is no more or less retarded in it's progress by government or by society than any other intellectual movement. (Again, with a possible exception, this time it's the National Man-Boy Love Association. There progress has hopefully been more retarded.)

[tellinellen]

so your wife worked full time and pumped at work. and apparently she was able to do this and was not fired or penalized in any way, and she had somewhere to store her milk.

isn't the right to do just that what this act is about?

[sheila]

i will see your scary sexist oppression and raise you one. the study everyone keeps citing shows only a correlative relationship between breast-feeding and good baby-health, not a causative one.

not coincidentally, the same correlative relationship exists with factors such as wealth, living close to good medical care and the education level of the mother.

it is entirely possible that breast feeding, although a wonderful choice for many families, may have far less to do with the health of babies as does the good education of parents, access to support services, healthy environment, and medical care.

so why are women made to feel like guilty failures when breast-feeding is not the best option for their families?

i totally agree that it is 100% natural and should be permitted anywhere and everywhere and accommodations should be made for mothers who wish to nurse, pump, etc., but i am very upset at those looking askance at women who choose not to breast-feed, as though they are abusing their children. THIS, to me, is the larger picture of how the system is damaging women by trying to control them.

[Dem02020]

As I live and breathe, and with every single spin around the sun I make, I'll never cease to be amazed, at the things that some people will think, are matters of Law and Government.