Oh, honey, I’m sure you were a huge help, but unless you were orphaned and had to take care of your brothers on your own, its not really the same thing.
If the spouse was available, they can go shopping. The better suggestion would probably have been to say, “hey your baby can drink formula every once in a while. like when your baby need to feed while you are in the produce section of the supermarket”
The federal government does not provide paid maternity leave, Wal Mart does not provide paid maternity leave, most small businesses do not provide paid maternity leave. Paid maternity leave is an employee benefit.
Of the things that you listed, the only thing folks are ReQUIRED to do is provide a place where women can pump their breasts (usually a nurse’s station in large offices (I don’t think small businesses are subject to this rule). The rest if done by the business at its own discretion because it is in its own best interest.
One of the many, many reasons women choose to use formula is that is saves them money, also. Breastfeeding is not convenient for anyone employeed outside their home.
Wait, what? It saves them money? How? forumula is expensive. Breast milk is free (and vastly nutritionally superior).
There may be a number of other reasons that women use formula, but saving money isn’t one of them. The total cost of all the formula they would have to buy far exceeds the cost of a single breast pump.
I returned to work when my first baby was around 12 weeks old. I was an outreach clinician, which meant that I traveled and saw clients in their homes, support programs, and the like. Which in turn meant that I did not have an office or lactation room or any of the features that evidently modern mamas are so brazenly demanding these days.
You know what? They make car-lighter adapaters for electric breast pumps for when you can’t be near a plug. I could list all of the remote corners of public parking lots where I ended up using my breast pump (while covered with a blanket, mind you), but I think curlcoat would probably tell me I should save those parking spaces for someone who wasn’t asking the world to drop at her feet just because she had a baby.
By using formula the baby can be feed by anyone, not just a lactating mother. This means anyone competent can care for the baby and the mother doesn’t have to interrupt her job or career to be a milk producer. Formula means the mother has the time to actually have a profession (and a life beyond the baby) not just a job with mommy hours.
That is the point of a breast pump - so a mother doesn’t have to interrupt her day to feed every time her infant is hungry. Stored breast milk can also be fed to an infant by any competent person.
I wasn’t just talking out my ass, you know. Thanks to my handy-dandy breast pump, my baby can also be fed by anyone, I also don’t have to interrupt my career, and I don’t have to spend a motherfucking fortune on formula. That $18 can makes 96 ounces, which would feed my baby for about four days. I’ve had to supplement with formula when my supply is low, and even that’s been a huge chunk of change. I actually hate pumping - it’s just annoying to have to hook myself up every couple of hours - but it’s been a total lifesaver. In fact, I’m pumping right now.
Oh, and I’m not working “mommy hours” - I still put in my typical pre-baby 50-hour weeks.
Maybe, maybe not, the child’s father might be a stay-at-home dad. In an extended family it is very common for one person (the person with the least ability to earn money working) to be given the job of caring for several infants and toddlers so that the mothers can make better use of their time actually earning money.
Yes, but you have to stop work and pump (which does take time out of your workday and can seriously interfere with the work flow in some jobs). And you have to be within commuting distance of your baby to get the breast milk to him or her. Formula means the mother isn’t tied to baby. She can travel for work (conventions, deployments, short-term jobs, etc.).
Look, I also don’t have or want kids, but even I am not this dumb when it comes to how breast feeding works. Do you even have any female friends with children?
A woman can pump on her lunch break or a bathroom break, then stick that shit in a fridge. She doesn’t have to immediately get the milk from teat to baby’s mouth or anything. I’m sure the mother doesn’t live at her job, so she can just take it home with her at the end of her work day and stick it in the fridge there.
People do all kinds of stupid shit that takes time out of their work day (SHOUT OUT TO THE OTHER DOPERS POSTING FROM WORK!), pumping breast milk is no bigger an interference than smokers, someone who steps outside for a break to get out of the fluorescent lights to get some sunshine, or someone who- this is rare, I know- eats lunch.
These are ludicrous objections. First off, the mother doesn’t have to immediately transport the milk the second it’s pumped (and it doesn’t take that much time from work, by the way. It can be done on a lunch break), it’s pumped and stored in bottles, and (if all goes well), the mom can keep enough bottles stockpiled for the caregiver to keep the little tyke fed during the day. I speak from personal experience here. Formula would have cost us in the thousands of dollars over time. A breast pump cots us a couple of hundred bucks and lasted through three babies. Breastfeeding is cheaper than formula. Even if you can contrive some convoluted scenario by which breast feeding would somehow cost money beyond the cost of a pump, you would be coming up with a goofy (probably non-existent in real life) anomalous situation, nothing typical. In terms of real expense for real moms, it’s not even close.
First of all, I work (or read the Dope) while I pump. I have a hands-free setup; it makes me feel very bovine. It takes about a minute and a half to get everything set up. And the milk does not need to be rushed to my baby by helicopter or something; I refrigerate it at work, and freeze it when I get home. It’s good for several days in the fridge and several months in the freezer. I could easily travel if needed. Of course, if I were in the military and deployed or something, then yes, obviously, we’d use formula. But for most working women, the cost savings and health benefits of pumping far outweigh the minor inconvenience (and it is, for most, extremely minor).
Secondly, let me make a correction.
I was counting only the four 6-ounce bottles my baby took in a typical day*. But I forgot to include the nursing I do in the morning and at night, which would be another 6-12 ounces. So that $18 can would actually feed him for 2-3 days. That adds up to thousands of dollars of the course of a year, vs. my $200 pump.
Formula can be really helpful in many ways, but saving money isn’t one of them.
*(it’s a little less now that he’s almost a year and eating lots of solids)