Baby Formula Crisis Highlights Much Bigger Problem - How We Value Moms

I breastfed my daughter for the whole two first years of her life, and it may have been the best thing I ever did for her.?So mothers should not continue being treated as second-class citizens. Instead, they should be recognized as “society’s CEOs” — the people running the most important enterprises, and the only ones capable of giving birth to and nurturing a whole new generation.

Breast milk is rich in nutrients and includes antibodies to fight off viruses and bacteria protecting the baby from infections and allergies. It boosts the immune system, reduces?infant mortality, and helps for a quicker recovery from common childhood illnesses. A Harvard study in 2016 estimated that 3,340 premature deaths a year among both mothers and babies could be prevented in the US alone given adequate breastfeeding. It also lowers a mother’s risk of breast and ovarian cancer, and osteoporosis.

An Economy Built on Human Greed

I get that this baby formula crisis is impacting people with lower incomes the most, and that people are stockpiling, etc. All the typical human behavior in a crisis that shouldn’t shock us at this point.?

The whole way our economy (and I'm mainly talking about the American economy in this case) is set up and focused primarily on profit, has created a real crisis of not being able to nourish babies. Obviously this is an extremely widespread and scary problem. The source of the shortage is factories being shut down due to their products already and potentially harming children - similar to the huge recall of Strauss chocolate in Israel. As I conveyed in that post, as long as major corporations can get away with cutting corners, no one really cares - until they get caught.

I’m not making light of how serious this situation is but do want to share a different perspective.?

I’m not making light of how serious this situation is but do want to share a different perspective.?

I'm also not going to say 'try breastfeeding' like Bette Midler got slammed for - even though I would like to scream that from the rooftops since it was the most wonderful experience of my life. But it's no so simple. A woman's decision whether or not to breastfeed is actually made long before the baby arrives, and possibly long before she's even pregnant. And either of these scenarios requires preparation - I'm talking about getting psyched up for it especially if you're a first time Mom or Dad. I'm also learning through all the comments to her tweet that many people don't have this choice. They have to use formula. Apart from serious medical conditions, I think a lot of that is a result of our unbalanced lifestyles, or a misguided value system. For example, many women don't breastfeed because they are worried about their breasts sagging, but we only have them for one purpose - to feed our babies! The pandemic may have helped us get into healthier habits, and this new crisis will probably push us to having even more balanced lives. I know it's easier said than done, especially for minimum wage employees living from paycheck to paycheck. Many lower wage employees don't get all the perks higher ranking employees do when they give birth. They also usually can't take time off to pump milk.

A Different Perspective From Nature

So putting all the above baby formula issues aside for a moment. I want to give another perspective that won't be very popular, because we've been conditioned against it. After all, we're talking about a $70 billion dollar industry. And all the special accessories they sell us for breastfeeding naturally is tiny in comparison. But in a nutshell, a mother's milk is free. Not great for an economy that is all about selling us more stuff.

But this is not just about saving money. The mother's natural nourishment contains unique forces, vital not only to the physical body of the newborn, but also for their inner development. And even with all our sophistication, the scientific tools we have today are incapable of detecting all of the subtle and delicate components found in breast milk.

Beyond the many benefits of mother's milk that medicine indicates, such as antibodies that protect the newborn's body against diseases, mental development, and more, there is also an emotional nourishment that flows between the mother and baby.

Beyond the many benefits of mother's milk that medicine indicates, such as antibodies that protect the newborn's body against diseases, mental development, and more, there is also an emotional nourishment that flows between the mother and baby. The newly arrived baby needs continuous contact with his mother, in as much as it can be similar to how it was in the womb.

Breastfeeding connects the mother and infant to a single system, in which the mother's blood turns into milk, and becomes blood once again within the baby's body. This is why breast milk is so important, since it’s almost identical to being fed through the umbilical cord in the mother's womb.

The milk carries with it the mother's physicality and her smell, but also her attitude and her inner world, her life wisdom and other factors that cannot be measured scientifically.

The milk carries with it the mother's physicality and her smell, but also her attitude and her inner world, her life wisdom and other factors that cannot be measured scientifically. It is an open communication channel for twenty-four months, through which much information flows, raising the baby according to the countless changes that shape their world emotionally, physiologically and mentally.

At the age when the baby begins to walk and still breastfeeds, several layers of connection are already formed. On the one hand, the baby can "escape" its mother and begin to build its independence away from her. On the other hand, the emotional pull and calming contact between them connects them for life.

Breast milk is rich in nutrients and includes antibodies to fight off viruses and bacteria protecting the baby from infections and allergies. It boosts the immune system, reduces?infant mortality, and helps for a quicker recovery from common childhood illnesses. A Harvard study in 2016 estimated that 3,340 premature deaths a year among both mothers and babies could be prevented in the US alone given adequate breastfeeding. It also lowers a mother’s risk of breast and ovarian cancer, and osteoporosis.

Besides the physical benefits and what is shown through laboratory experiments, breastfeeding is one of the best ways of bonding with a baby. In addition to nutrition, it provides comfort and relaxation. It releases oxytocin, which is the hormone responsible for other loving behaviors that make us feel good about a person.

Besides the physical benefits and what is shown through laboratory experiments, breastfeeding is one of the best ways of bonding with a baby. In addition to nutrition, it provides comfort and relaxation. It releases oxytocin, which is the hormone responsible for other loving behaviors that make us feel good about a person.

Extended breastfeeding for the first two years of life allows for the child’s?proper development, and women express more maternal sensitivity well past the infant and toddler years, according to a study by the American Psychological Association.

Beyond these scientific facts, there is also a natural inner connection between the mother and the child that allows for positive biological and internal development, which starts inside the womb, belonging to an inner layer in nature that our studies and research tools still cannot pinpoint.

Considering the vital role mothers play in each individual’s development from the earliest of ages, it stands to reason that stay-at-home mothers should be given all the support possible to raise the next generation. However, in practice, this is not the case.

At the end of the day, women who decide to fulfill a traditional role as stay-at-home mothers do not receive enough recognition, value, and economic support from society, as if raising a new generation were not the most important enterprise of all.

In today’s world, the bulk of the burden falls on the mother, who is usually expected to prioritize her career over her family, juggling tasks and becoming increasingly exhausted and unsatisfied. The so-called advancement of women’s rights to choose is in practice an oxymoron. At the end of the day, women who decide to fulfill a traditional role as stay-at-home mothers do not receive enough recognition, value, and economic support from society, as if raising a new generation were not the most important enterprise of all.

The same way science has been unable to create an artificial uterus that brings an embryo to life, a mother’s role of nurturing and educating the child is irreplaceable. We cannot pretend to be wiser than nature. If we really want to empower and foster women’s self-determination, society should create conditions for a comfortable motherhood.

In most societies women struggle to have a balanced life, considering work as an economic necessity rather than liberation and personal progress. Women get caught in an ever-tightening entanglement of commitments at work and home with very little restitution at any level.

Nowadays, certain governments are considering the distribution of an unconditional basic income sufficient to meet a person’s basic needs. Such programs, if implemented, should benefit women first and foremost, particularly mothers who decide to leave the workplace in order to raise their children.

Mothers should not continue being treated as second-class citizens. Instead, they should be recognized as “society’s CEOs” — the ruling force in creation, the only ones capable of giving birth to and nurturing a whole new generation. Keep in mind that the world is our roof, humanity is our home, and women are the pillar of this structure. Nature is showing us the perfect mechanism of the human body. And motherhood in particular has a crucial role in giving birth to a new humanity.