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    Breast Is (or Isn't) Best

    Posted Wednesday, March 11, 2009 10:30 AM | By Emily Yoffe
    XX Factor's Hanna Rosin has a fascinating piece in the latest Atlantic on the breast-feeding myth. She writes that after nursing her first two children for a year each, she finds herself longing to free her breast early from the mouth of baby No. 3. Hanna looks at the studies we've been spoon-fed over the years about the incalculable superiority of breast-feeding and finds that when you actually examine the numbers, most fade to statistical insignificance. She is not making a case against breast-feeding (despite the fact that's the title of the piece!): She acknowledges its many benefits, and she is saying there is a rational choice to be made to not breast-feed and those mothers shouldn't be treated as if formula is laced with anthrax. As Hanna points out, a miserable breast-feeding mother is not an optimum mother. I know we all should support whatever good choice women make for themselves (I happily breast fed for a year), but her piece made me think of the alternate phenomenon. I confess something bothers me about when I see mothers who won't stop breast-feeding. These are the women whose 4-year-olds walk up to them and demand a slurp. I always wonder if these mothers are going to be waiting in the wings, nursing bra at the ready, when their kids need a boost during the SATs.
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