I consider myself a feminist, and I think that the women's movement, modern medical technology, and dare I say it, the profit motive, have done a lot to make women's lives better. I think that this is something that people in the developed world, and the US especially, forget, because the bad old days are so far away. Caveat: none of what I say excuses pushing formula in countries where there is no reliable source of clean water.
My grandmother had 8 children. The first 7 were born at home with a midwife. Her firstborn was severely mentally handicapped due to oxygen deprivation at birth, something that was taken for granted at the time, but might not have happened if she had had access to modern medical technology. She breastfed her 8 children, but died at 45 of breast cancer, when her youngest child was 4. Breastfeeding did not save her, but modern medical technology might have - and incidentally, the loss of their mother scarred all her children for life.
My own mother was the first in her family to go to college, but she was fired when she got married due to a marriage bar, and then again when she had her first child, because in her second job women with children were automatically fired. She was and is a great mother and grandmother, but she is a woman who needs to work outside the home. She was quite unhappy for periods of my childhood, and it was a relief to all of us when she went back to work full time. All her childbirths (in hospital) were drug-free, because in those days, drugs weren't offered so she didn't have the choice. She doesn't view her birthing experiences as empowering or special - just as pain you have to go through to have a baby. She cloth diapered her children, not for the sake of the environment, but because in those days there were no disposables. She sees the disposable diaper as one of the great inventions of modern science. She breastfed all of us, because everyone did it in those days, and she didn't have a job, so she had the time. She enjoyed it, but has no guilt about weaning us to cow's milk at 9 months because we started biting.
Bottom line, the women's movement, modern medical technology and products such as disposable diapers and formula have more often than not provided women with choices. I think we patronize women when we automatically assume that the choices they make are choices made because they are brainwashed or ignorant, rather than choices that make their lives and those of their children better.
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My grandmother had 8 children. The first 7 were born at home with a midwife. Her firstborn was severely mentally handicapped due to oxygen deprivation at birth, something that was taken for granted at the time, but might not have happened if she had had access to modern medical technology. She breastfed her 8 children, but died at 45 of breast cancer, when her youngest child was 4. Breastfeeding did not save her, but modern medical technology might have - and incidentally, the loss of their mother scarred all her children for life.
My own mother was the first in her family to go to college, but she was fired when she got married due to a marriage bar, and then again when she had her first child, because in her second job women with children were automatically fired. She was and is a great mother and grandmother, but she is a woman who needs to work outside the home. She was quite unhappy for periods of my childhood, and it was a relief to all of us when she went back to work full time. All her childbirths (in hospital) were drug-free, because in those days, drugs weren't offered so she didn't have the choice. She doesn't view her birthing experiences as empowering or special - just as pain you have to go through to have a baby. She cloth diapered her children, not for the sake of the environment, but because in those days there were no disposables. She sees the disposable diaper as one of the great inventions of modern science. She breastfed all of us, because everyone did it in those days, and she didn't have a job, so she had the time. She enjoyed it, but has no guilt about weaning us to cow's milk at 9 months because we started biting.
Bottom line, the women's movement, modern medical technology and products such as disposable diapers and formula have more often than not provided women with choices. I think we patronize women when we automatically assume that the choices they make are choices made because they are brainwashed or ignorant, rather than choices that make their lives and those of their children better.