1/ I like @sarahljaffe's writing but...the quandries of white women in Brooklyn re breastfeeding have little to do with the realities of developing world women, where the life and death issue is that the water quality re formula can be deadly.
2/ Women, anywhere, should have choices. Those choices are complicated. Among "western" women the key one is often, when are the benefits worth the impact? No woman should face shame if she can't, for whatever reason, BF at all or for the length of time she feels pressured to.
3/ But where countries where water quality is often fetid, the marketing that Nestle and other formula makers have engaged in is LITERALLY deadly. BF is, on mass, much safer, and cheaper. Formula companies employ tactics there outlawed here.
4/ To a lesser extent, those same tactics have been deployed, to suboptimal outcomes, in the US, among poor women of color. Once upon a time, I wrote about this for both the @ChicagoReporter and @wcp.
5/ But again, the outcomes are a gazillion times worse in countries where there's little access to clean water.
6/ If you're a new/expectant mom in the US, i will just say this: Science shows that if you can BF for at least a few days or weeks, that's awesome real benefits to you both, but if you can't your baby will be TOTALLY fine. Past six months returns are not well established.
7/ Re the key benefits: antibody transference, hormonal assist in bonding. Again things that are probably most important where health risks are greater, social impacts harder.
8/ But for women who live in places with fetid water, the choice is starker. You serve not just as a source of nutrition, but as a filtration device.
9/ In US, the pressure some women put on themselves to perfectly comport with their peer group's ideal duration of BF can be insane.
10/ That said, your decision to BF should be supported by your employer and society at large. Get over it, it's what they were made for.
11/ And as @SarahJaffey deftly lays out, if the hamfisted antibreastfeeding policies at some hospitals have tipped over too far as to be insensitive to women struggling with it, that needs to be addressed. More balanced prenatal instruction is optimal.
