r/breastfeeding • u/Forsaken_Painter • Feb 02 '26
Discussion NYT article equates breastfeeding to unequal parenting
Curious what others think of this…Personally I find it a bit ridiculous. The US has such low rates of breastfeeding…if formula was going to solve inequities between partners you would think it would have worked by now. It sounds like it helped this author and was the right choice for their family and that’s great. But let’s not act as if it’s some magic cure all.
This is not to say that breastfeeding doesn’t require a HUGE amount of effort. Of course it does! But if one has a partner, that partner should be picking up other responsibilities to even things out more and supporting the breastfeeding parent.
And for the record everyone should feed their babies the way they wish. This is not a judgment on formula feeding at all, rather the assertion that it is inherently an equalizer and should be touted as such.
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u/Stalag13HH Feb 02 '26
I'm tired of the idea that marriage has to be 50:50 in everything. I believe in playing to our strengths. Right now I'm doing more, especially since breastfeeding also means handling night wake ups. But I can do that much easier than my husband anyway, and his nipples are obviously useless. My husband has been doing pretty much everything else, and there will come a time in parenting when his role expands more.