Screw the children it is soooo about women!

Ha ha just joking, well of coarse they should be made to accommodate.

But I thought there were like, devices that could milk a woman? This way it could be stored and given to the baby the next day without having to breast feed at work or even having to be there?

Or should I invent this thing? I thought they existed?

I have to say that when it comes to breast feeding, I am still not sure if it poses any significant difference. In terms of who I know who has been breast fed and who hasnt, the people who were not breast fed (including myself) are healthier as adults than those who were breast fed as children. While I don't necessarily think that NOT breast feeding is better, I do believe it points to the fact that breast feeding isnt necessarily better. Half the time, I just feel as though it's yet another tool to make mothers feel bad (if they don't breast feed). yet another way to determine someone who is a "bad" mother.

It's definately a lot more difficult to breastfeed and be a working mom. Hujo, they do have breast pumps that can help but there are two things 1)the pump doesn't work as efficiently as your child, which can seriously screw up your supply and it takes forever (it used to take me 25-30 minutes to get 3-4 ounces of milk, which is barely enough for one bottle, much less an entire day) and 2)You need to have a convienent place to pump. For instance, when I went back to work after my daughter was born, I didn't have an office I could shut the door to or a bathroom that I could spend 30 minutes in, especially not 2-3 times a day. I probably could have breastfed a lot longer than I did if I had a more accomodating workplace, in the end I ended up supplementing with formula the week I went back and by the time she was four months old, I had stopped altogether.
Kate, I'm not sure it's hugely better, but I do think in general breastmilk tends to be less calorie dense and better for younger infants than formula. A lot of the studies show a benefit of breastfeeding for the first 6 months to a year. I don't know if it continues to adulthood (like you, my anecdotal evidence seems to point to no) but I think there are some minimal benefits in terms of health to breastfeed as long as you both desire. That being said, I don't think formula is bad for babies in any way or that someone is a bad mother if they choose not to breastfeed. My daugher did wonderfully on formula once we got the right kind, it just sucked that I had to stop breastfeeding her before either of us really wanted to stop because I had to work and the two weren't compatible.

Darn right it is used to make mothers who can't or don't nurse their children feel inadequate. The other day I was at a restaurant feeding my son and some nusring Nazi snapped at me, saying that I must not want the best for my baby. I explained to her that since he was underweight and failing to thrive when I was nursing him, formula feeding was what was best for him. She just turned her nose up and walked off.
This was the first time anyone said anything to me, but I have gotten looks before.

Breastfeeding is wonderful, but it's not possible for everyone for a number of reasons. And personally I think too many things factor into a child's health and intellectual development (genetics, nutrition, physical and emotional environment, etc.) to single out breast milk as the source for all things positive.

I agree Amanda... I also had a whole bunch of people comment on the fact I formula fed my daughter, who had no idea that I tried as hard as I could to breastfeed, or that she had lost weight that she gained back when we switched to formula. They really do make you out to be a bad mom if you can't or choose not to breastfeed and I know plenty of smart, healthy kids who were formula fed.

Thats strange,I thought women worked in order to feed their children.

I don't think this is neccesarily a scare tactic. It could be used as an argument for why women need more access to paid maternity leave.

While employers should be more helpful to breast feeding women, our jobs are such that this is not practical. Most women have the same type of positions such as teaching, nursing, secretarial, and care fields, that we cannot do at home, and require us to work within set hours. Many of us accepted that breast feeding in the long haul was not an option, realizing cops can't use a breast pump in squad cars, and that teachers can't take an hour and half out of a six hour school day to store milk. I just wish there wasn't a Feeding Police out there to harass women who are giving their children formula. You would have thought the babies were being fed Jello shots from the sounds of their flaps.

I'm sorry to hear that so many people (even from just this small sample) have been treated poorly for feeding their babies formula. Of course, as a breastfeeding mom, I got the other side, "Omigod, don't you feel like a COW?" to the point I wound up just using formula whenever we were out of the house - it was "easier" (though having twins was admittedly a factor - it's not easy to be "subtle" when nursing two).

IMO, this is yet another example of all these people criticizing mothers while offering practically NO support. The list of demands on moms grows ever-longer, and the supports for families dwindle.

So here we see "maternal employment can be a liability" as opposed to the truth, which is that patriarchy can be a liability, not just to mothers' ability to feed their children, but also to mothering in general.

IMHO, what we need is not more people going on about /women's/ choices (many of which are not real "choices" at all - I wound up staying at home upon realizing that I would gross about $1/day after paying daycare for my twins), but rather more focus on how our culture fails to support mothers and families - how we as a society are more interested in today's bottom line than tomorrow's adults.