

The More I Learn About Breast Milk, the More Amazed I Am - mizzao
http://www.thestranger.com/features/feature/2015/08/26/22755273/the-more-i-learn-about-breast-milk-the-more-amazed-i-am

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ohthehugemanate
"Breast is best" absolutely dominates the conversation in the popular press,
no matter what the actual studies say. This surge of support for breastfeeding
started with the Catholic La Leche group, and now the studies tell us they
chose the right cause for their goals: breast feeding women ARE much more
likely to stay in the home, much less likely to "disrupt christian families"
by holding a job, and much more likely to become the primary care giver for
their child. Breastfeeding is a great way to support a regressive Catholic
family structure: woman at home as the primary childcare giver, man at work.

The press talks about it like an established scientific fact that
breastfeeding does everything: fights diabetes, childhood obesity, raises
intelligence, fortifies the immune system, and the list continues. The only
problem is that if you actually read the research, there's no good evidence
for any of that. There are tenuous correlations in uncontrolled, unreproduced
studies, often reusing the same poor data sets, where even the authors note
that no real conclusions can be drawn. Those are the only studies quoted in
favor of breastfeeding's miracle effects. In responsible surveys of the
research, the only claim that holds up is that iq may get up to a 5 point
boost (well within the error bars for childhood IQ testing). There is some
evidence that it can help reduce incidence of upset stomach or diarrhea in an
infant, to the tune of one fewer incident per child (on average). That's it.
There are no controlled, reproduced studies to show anything else.

But the science is very clear that if both parents can trade off to share the
loss of sleep and emotional bonding, the resulting boost in emotional
stability and support have much bigger effects! New parents, imagine your
mental state if you could each put in earplugs and get 3 full nights sleep per
week!

Breastfeeding is the religious right's sneak attack on female independence,
wrapped up as pop feminism. Real feminists (of both sexes) share the load and
bonding time with their partner, and ensure their baby gets consistent feeding
with complete nutrients every time. Real feminists have a gender agnostic
parenting environment for their child. All it takes is reading a little
research.

