Goodbye Breast Pump

I'm cleaning out baby stuff and for some reason can't bring myself to throw away the breast pump. It was both my buddy and my ball-and-chain, my pain in the butt and my helper. 

Ok now that I've said that, I think I can get rid of it. Thanks, breast pump, for helping me meet my breastfeeding goals! 

Um nope still haven't thrown it away. I'm sitting here looking at it.

Kristine, throw it away. If you have another baby, you can get a fancy new pump paid for by insurance...

Ok deep breath...

I'm just going to put it in the garbage bag, but keep the garbage bag in the house.

Greedy Breastfeeding Mothers Featured on NPR

I whipped up this letter in response to a really terrible NPR piece on breast pumps.

Dear Mr. Siegel and Ms. Chace,
I'm amazed that this piece was deemed good enough to air on NPR.  You portray breastfeeding mothers as greedy people trying to get a luxury good for free.  Your economist's opinions were promoted over actual information by breastfeeding and health experts.
 "CHACE: But our economist, Katherine Baicker, isn't so sure that eliminating the cost of the breast pumps really induces much extra breastfeeding. Rather, she thinks most of the money spent will go towards people who would have been breastfeeding anyway."
What is the evidence she has for this?
"BAICKER: So the question is whether the value that those people get from the breast pumps is worth the cost in terms of increased health spending and increased premiums."
Actually, that's not the question.  The question is, is a breastpump, which allows a mother to give her baby the healthiest food possible, full of antibodies and cancer-fighting cells, as important as other aspects of the baby’s medical care?  Of course it is.

Approaching One Year of Breastfeeding... Again!

Baby Lane; note iPhone with supercharger

Lane’s first birthday is coming up on Tuesday, and I’m getting excited because it means I’ve hit one year of breastfeeding. I want to scream with happiness just writing that, even though I had little doubt I’d meet the goal- she’s my second kid, and in my 2 years and 4 months of nursing her older brother, I became educated about breastfeeding by attending mothers’ groups run by either LCs or lactation counselors, reading books and blogs, and listening to many mothers’ stories of breastfeeding successes and challenges.  I knew that even if I encountered an obstacle such as tongue tie or a baby with food allergies (problems I didn’t even know existed until after I gave birth), I had reliable, expert help just a phone call away.

Still, I knew obstacles were possible.  I could have had a baby born with a medical issue like like an unformed palate or even a health problem that put her in the NICU, both of which would complicate the oh-so important first fews days of breastfeeding.  I could have had problems when I went back to work at 8.5 months, like a care provider who overfed her milk, or even a power outage that ruined a painstakingly built-up extra milk stash in the freezer.  In addition to all of the fascinating science I’ve learned about breastfeeding, I’ve learned just how many societal and medical factors can interfere with breastfeeding.