Typically when men weigh in on women's issues like rape, abortion, childbirth, etc., it can generate big collective eye roll, since it's annoying that the personal business of women's bodies are politicized to begin with. Also, they tend to sound like idiot assholes, usually because their opinions on the matter-whether a pro-life politician or a needy husband-are rooted in their own selfish interests. So it's refreshing to see an essay written by a new father arguing against the "breast is best" gestapo because of its negative impact on a mother's mental and emotional health, and not because he was worried that her tits would be desexualized.
In a piece for The Atlantic, Chris Kornelis discusses his wife's difficulty breastfeeding, producing milk, and getting their son to latch on saying, "There wasn't much milk, but there were plenty of tears." He looked at the struggle as a "team effort," not allowing his wife to feel like she failed, but rather, that they gave up on breastfeeding together, since neither of them were getting any rest as they were struggling with the pumps in the brief periods that their son slept between feedings.
They were exhausted and eventually bought some formula, only to see printed on the label: "Experts agree that breastfeeding is best." It's like pouring salt in the wounds of guilt inflicted by the social stigma that you are settling for "second best" for your child. Kornelis says:
"I've never seen a sticker on the outside of a box of frozen chicken nuggets that says ‘experts agree, feeding your child chicken that's definitely chicken and not covered in breading is best.' Our pediatrician told us it was no big deal to switch to formula. Do you think he'd say the same for a steady diet of fast food?"
As he points out, experts on child-raising have agreed on lots of things over the years, like having babies sleep on their stomachs, which experts now agree is completely horrible and might kill your baby.
"Experts may agree that breastfeeding is best. But experts will also tell you that mistakes happen when people are exhausted. What's better: a baby who's formula-fed and driven to story time by a mom who's had six hours of sleep, or a parent who hasn't had that much in a week?"
A Father's Case Against Breast-Feeding [The Atlantic]
DISCUSSION
I was waiting to be able to comment on this article. As a physician-researcher interested in breastfeeding and with experience in the many qualities of breastmilk I have some objections to this article. Firstly, waddup with the whole "experts on child-raising have agreed on lots of things over the years, like having babies sleep on their stomachs, which experts now agree is completely horrible and might kill your baby." Yea.. no. Ok so yes biomedicine has been pretty faulty (lobotomies and what not) but biomedicine is increasingly, rather has moved into, an evidence based approach where ideas are tested, reviewed and then applied. Not all of biomedicine is like that, I agree, and there are reservations about that but in the case of breastfeeding the evidence is almost overwhelming. A simple pubmed search leads to hundreds of articles that look at different parameters and compare breastmilk to formula and breastmilk trumps in many cases from decreasing postpartum depression in mothers to improving immunity and decreasing adipose tissue in pre-pubescent children. So this claim is kinda idiotic and comparing it to features of biomedicine before the advent of the rigorous training present now kinda silly.
The benefits of breastmilk are many and the thing is that we haven't been able to figure out how to mimic it since every woman produces a unique combination and we haven't even isolated all the factors that are present and it is hard making particular proteins in a cheap and efficient way and add 'em to formula.
breast is very good for baby, and yes i'd say its the best because it is. plain and simple. however formula is an alternative and infants require it (in intensive care units, when mothers are unable to produce sufficient, allergies to breastmilk) and it is ok if you have to use it. at the end of the day it is your child and these are your decisions and if you are comfortable then that is what counts. also calm down with usage of words like gestapo and what not. there isn't a conspiracy going around to shove milk down every child's throat. I think if possible every mother should try to breastfeed but if it doesn't work out then that is ok. There are alternatives and their effects are't detrimental its just that they aren't as good as breastmilk