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Is this a market now wholly because the United States has shit maternity leave laws, or would it be a market without it as well? For some cultures, there has b

Is this a market now wholly because the United States has shit maternity leave laws, or would it be a market without it as well? For some cultures, there has been an employment category called "wet nurses" whose entire job was to look after an infant and breastfeed it as a mother would. Perhaps as society becomes more an more unequal, we'll see a resurgence of wet nurses for rich infants.

smtddr 12y ago
Got a 3 month old son and my wife is providing the milk. We're lucky in that, for some reason, oatmeal cookies or hot oatmeal cereal causes my wife to have an abundant supply. We're also lucky in that my high-paying tech job allows her to work only part time(2days/week) so she's home most of the time to feed the baby and pumps milk ahead of time when she won't be around. But some women can't produce enough milk or have lives that are too busy, but still want their child to receive the benefits of mother's milk. Anecdata tells me that women who are stressed out won't produce much milk, so... I assume that's a significant number of people right there. EDIT: Changed phrasing per reply
- indians_pro 12y ago
  >overflowing fountain please- ahem avoid using phrases like that- EDIT : For god's sake people, it was a JOKE
rayiner 12y ago
We outsource almost everything women would, in earlier times, have had to stay home and do (cleaning, childcare, laundry, drycleaning, grocery shopping), so why not milk production as well? I know the process of feeding your infant is very fulfilling, but I've never heard anyone who liked the actual lactating part, which is pretty miserable.
- smokey_the_bear 12y ago
  Pumping isn't great, but actually nursing a baby can be wonderful. It releases hormones, and is generally very relaxing for me if my baby is calm.
  - tomjen3 12y ago
    I imagine there is an evolutionary reason for that - but at the same time (if you don't mind me asking) how often is the baby calm?
    - smokey_the_bear 12y ago
      Both of mine have generally been calm. Nursing changes a lot as they get older, mine usually weren't interested in nursing when they've just eaten a lot of solids, or if there are distractions around, and being overtired is a whole other beast. I'd say now with my second baby, at 11 months, 90% of the bedtime and morning nursings are pleasant bonding experiences, and half of the daytime ones.
- EliRivers 12y ago
  Milk production has been outsourced for a very long time [1]. We just now have the technology to move it reliably from supplier to anonymous recipient rather than having to have instantaneous transfer, and social attitudes in the US have swung back in favour of human milk rather than substitutes. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_nurse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_nurse
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
swatow 12y ago
No, if you read the article, you'll see it is absolutely nothing to do with maternity leave. The article describes a market where companies pay women for breast milk that is left over after they have fed their own babies, and use it to produce a pharmaceutical product for premature babies. The controversy is between non-profits and for profit companies both doing this (but the non-profit doesn't pay the women).
DominikR 12y ago
While I agree that maternity leave laws are quite problematic for many women in the US it should also be mentioned that not every mother is able to breast feed their child. It's actually not that uncommon and in most cases these women are otherwise perfectly healthy and really want to breast feed. Many non-physiological factors play a role here. For example how much pressure does the mother feel or put on herself. (typically with the first child because it's a new experience) How much stress does she have and so on.
- slowmovintarget 12y ago
  There are also factors where the baby is unable to develop proper latching and sucking technique. My daughter had a tongue-tie, which, while corrected on her second day out, left her with the wrong muscle impulses for nursing. We had to bottle feed her, and eventually the pumping wasn't enough to continue the supply, or allow the supply to fully "come in".
prostoalex 12y ago
The fact that women choose to have children at a later age can probably be traced to maternity leave laws (although it seems to be the trend in any developed career-oriented society, not just US). Later age is correlated with lower milk production, kicking up the demand http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/07/27/us-milk-production-idUSTRE66Q4YV20100727 http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/07/27/us-milk-production...

smtddr 12y ago

Got a 3 month old son and my wife is providing the milk. We're lucky in that, for some reason, oatmeal cookies or hot oatmeal cereal causes my wife to have an abundant supply. We're also lucky in that my high-paying tech job allows her to work only part time(2days/week) so she's home most of the time to feed the baby and pumps milk ahead of time when she won't be around. But some women can't produce enough milk or have lives that are too busy, but still want their child to receive the benefits of mother's milk. Anecdata tells me that women who are stressed out won't produce much milk, so... I assume that's a significant number of people right there. EDIT: Changed phrasing per reply

indians_pro 12y ago
>overflowing fountain please- ahem avoid using phrases like that- EDIT : For god's sake people, it was a JOKE

rayiner 12y ago

We outsource almost everything women would, in earlier times, have had to stay home and do (cleaning, childcare, laundry, drycleaning, grocery shopping), so why not milk production as well? I know the process of feeding your infant is very fulfilling, but I've never heard anyone who liked the actual lactating part, which is pretty miserable.

smokey_the_bear 12y ago
Pumping isn't great, but actually nursing a baby can be wonderful. It releases hormones, and is generally very relaxing for me if my baby is calm.
- tomjen3 12y ago
  I imagine there is an evolutionary reason for that - but at the same time (if you don't mind me asking) how often is the baby calm?
  - smokey_the_bear 12y ago
    Both of mine have generally been calm. Nursing changes a lot as they get older, mine usually weren't interested in nursing when they've just eaten a lot of solids, or if there are distractions around, and being overtired is a whole other beast. I'd say now with my second baby, at 11 months, 90% of the bedtime and morning nursings are pleasant bonding experiences, and half of the daytime ones.
EliRivers 12y ago
Milk production has been outsourced for a very long time [1]. We just now have the technology to move it reliably from supplier to anonymous recipient rather than having to have instantaneous transfer, and social attitudes in the US have swung back in favour of human milk rather than substitutes. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_nurse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_nurse

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

swatow 12y ago

No, if you read the article, you'll see it is absolutely nothing to do with maternity leave. The article describes a market where companies pay women for breast milk that is left over after they have fed their own babies, and use it to produce a pharmaceutical product for premature babies. The controversy is between non-profits and for profit companies both doing this (but the non-profit doesn't pay the women).

DominikR 12y ago

While I agree that maternity leave laws are quite problematic for many women in the US it should also be mentioned that not every mother is able to breast feed their child. It's actually not that uncommon and in most cases these women are otherwise perfectly healthy and really want to breast feed. Many non-physiological factors play a role here. For example how much pressure does the mother feel or put on herself. (typically with the first child because it's a new experience) How much stress does she have and so on.

slowmovintarget 12y ago
There are also factors where the baby is unable to develop proper latching and sucking technique. My daughter had a tongue-tie, which, while corrected on her second day out, left her with the wrong muscle impulses for nursing. We had to bottle feed her, and eventually the pumping wasn't enough to continue the supply, or allow the supply to fully "come in".

prostoalex 12y ago

The fact that women choose to have children at a later age can probably be traced to maternity leave laws (although it seems to be the trend in any developed career-oriented society, not just US). Later age is correlated with lower milk production, kicking up the demand http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/07/27/us-milk-production-idUSTRE66Q4YV20100727 http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/07/27/us-milk-production...