"Breast is best" absolutely dominates the conversation in the popular press, no matter what the actual studies say. This surge of support for breastfeeding star

"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.