On breastfeeding

I've been trying to build up a supply of frozen milk for Jack's midnight feeds while Nonna and Pops are here, and as of now I think I'm up to at least two nights' worth. I know most of you aren't incredibly interested in breastfeeding stuff, so if not, you can skip the rest of this entry. Emily Bazelon, who writes for one of my favorite websites, Slate.com, has had several recent articles about breastfeeding that have turned me from a reluctant reader of her columns to a pretty big fan of hers. They're witty and real and examine her subject with her lawyer's thoroughness. She's not nearly as good as Dahlia Lithwick (who lives in Charlottesville and actually signed Ben's Con Law book at his request), and I'm still not convinced she's the best mom in the world, though I'm not as skeptical as Ben about her mothering abilities. Ben thinks she's a mom a la one of the professors at UVa Law who appeared to have all the maternal instincts of a cobra--she was seriously so abrasive that I was really surprised to see her with her second bump (I didn't know anything about her before she had her first child). But the point is, Emily Bazelon is a darn good writer and she's tackled some topics lately that have been of particular interest to me.

An older article sings the praises of the breast pump, analogizing it to the BlackBerry in its ability to free moms from constant care of their new babies. It's a really good comparison, in both the negative and positive ways. I've seen many of my friends become tethered to their work via a BlackBerry, and I have to say that my friend Bessie similarly became tied to the breast pump, which she used for several weeks (or was it months?) after she had to stop breastfeeding her son Henry (who shares Jack's birthdate). But it's so freeing to be able to think of leaving Jack for a few hours to get my hair cut or go on a date with Ben (should he ever be freed from the office) without worrying about Jack getting hungry.

But it's her latest article that I find the most interesting. Apparently there's a new study that just found that when babies with a certain gene were breastfed, their IQs were on average 7 points higher, a really significant difference. But the interesting part is in the details that most articles about the study overlooked. Although 90% of babies have the gene, those without it showed no benefit or detriment from breastfeeding. The study was also done before formulas started incorporating DHA, a fatty acid found in breast milk that is possibly associated with brain development--the addition of DHA to formula may significantly affect the study's usefulness.

Those two facts are likely to be overlooked by the La Leche League nuts who tend to use edited information from studies like this to make women feel horribly guilty about not breastfeeding their babies. Or even the US government, as they did in a public service announcement that likened not breastfeeding to a pregnant woman riding a mechanical bull (I'm not kidding about that, and the ad is even less subtle than my comment makes it seem--seriously watch the video on the link). It's disgusting and unnecessary at a time when women are feeling so completely vulnerable for others to make judgments. Very little of the often times unsolicited "advice" about how to breastfeed and how to keep your supply of milk is actually helpful. Even Dr. Sears, who is normally my childcare expert of choice, is fairly unhelpful in the breastfeeding troubleshooting area; most of his advice consists of reminding a nursing mother in pain that her baby "is only small for a short period of time," which is no solace for a burning chest.

Don't get me wrong--Jack hasn't had any formula since he was about 6 weeks old. But that's not because I'm crazy convinced that breastfeeding is best--just that it's easiest for us now and I've actually come to like it. It's mostly because 1) after the initial horribly painful and frustrating first 3 weeks, I've been really lucky that I haven't had problems with breastfeeding and figured that it was cheaper and easier than carting around all the supplies required for formula feeding, and 2) Jack had a couple of terrible vomiting incidents the last two times he had formula supplements that scared me a lot. Even though those incidents were probably a result of other people not knowing Jack's signals and overfeeding him, it was still enough to make me determined not to have to give him formula again.

At any rate, Emily Bazelon takes the study findings a step further, asking what the implications are if scientists develop the potential to find out whether or not children have the gene variant that makes breastmilk beneficial. She asks, wouldn't you feel ripped off if you made tons of sacrifices to breastfeed your infant who didn't have the gene? Or even if you just found out that you didn't have the gene, period, and thus didn't have the possibility of an IQ boost? Well, yeah, I kind of would. Fascinating argument.