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The original was posted on /r/twoxchromosomes by /u/marcarcand_world on 2023-07-30 17:50:15.
Let me just start by saying that I am childless, so if you’re a mom and you’re reading this being like “yeah duh” well, sorry I guess?
I am at that age (28) where all my friends are pregnant or trying to be and I’ve been around babies for a while now (I have 5 nieces). I also live in Canada. Every mother I know breastfed, I don’t know anyone who didn’t. I know there are many reasons why a woman could choose to use formula and it’s none of my buisness. That being said, talking with Americans and going in American spaces (like Reddit), the discourse about formula seems so different south of the border? Formula seems way more widespread down there and normalized, whereas here it’s a given that the baby will be breastfed unless there’s a medical reason not to. I wondered if it was just me who thought that and it’s not. Around 89% of women breastfeed in Canada (I’m on mobile and idk how to link sources so I’ll do it in the comments, but it’s a statistic from 2012), while in the States it’s around 75% and only 58% for African-american babies (statistic from 2010). Until recently, that seemed crazy to me because the scientific consensus is that breastfeeding is way better for babies, so unless you can’t for medical reasons, why wouldn’t breastfeed your baby? And it’s free too!
One thing I didn’t understand about breastfeeding and that just clicked recently for me hanging out with a new mother is that it takes a looonnnng time to breastfeed. Like damn, you mothers spend almost half the day just breastfeeding that baby, I genuinely thought it didn’t take THAT long (again, I don’t have babies and it’s not something you just know).
And there’s no paid parental leave in the US (unless your employer offers it). So how tf are you supposed to breastfeed a baby while working full time? Why isn’t it offered and why are all the weird racist anti immigration people against it if they want more healthy american babies? It doesn’t make any sense. A woman can be healthy and have no issue with breasteeding, but simply not have the time to do it because she is working. By not having paid parental leave, your government is directly impacting the health of your kids and giving a shiton of money to Nestle. I always thought the no paid parental leave was an insane thing, but it just clicked to me how much it could impact breastfeeding. And ofc the new moms won’t riot over it, they are new moms and they are really tired.
Still, no paid parental leave is even more insane than I thought it was. So I guess I’m angry for y’all.