One more thought, if top and bottom teeth meet, time to stop!

As for the time off for breastfeeding/pumping, it’s a first step but not a panacea. I’m lucky enough to be able to afford the time out of the workforce while my children are little, but as an extreme extrovert who suffers from chronic health problems (which were the primary thing that got me committed to to breastfeeding as a teen – more than a decade before my first pregnancy – I was hoping that breastfeeding might help protect my children from some of the health problems I have) this is REALLY hard on me mentally some days. I don’t have the physical stamina to get them out of the house to interact with other at-home families during the day and if I was slightly less mentally resilient I would likely be dealing with major depressive episodes through the last four plus years of being out of the workforce, due to lack of daily adult interactions with people outside my own home. I know I’m an unusual combination of issues (I don’t know any other physically disabled mothers of young children, much less ones who are actively breastfeeding) but even just being an extrovert and out of the workforce has been really mentally hard on a lot of my friends. Add in the financial hardship of the time off since very few states have ANY requirement/way to have the 12 weeks most employers have to grant us PAID, and it’s hard on pretty much ALL families for mom to take the time off even for the full 12 weeks. Especially with Canada now realizing that a YEAR is an appropriate maternity leave and subsidize it, is there really any surprise that our breastfeeding rates SUCK? Then add in the formula lobby/marketing and women being socialized against breastfeeding,even sometimes from alleged breastfeeding proponents. Think about the images that we see of breastfeeding – almost always out the top of the shirt/buttoning down – this gives the impression to non-mothers and pregnant women that that’s the only way to get boob out of clothing so they think they need to FLASH EVERYONE every time they go to feed the baby. I’ve seen adverts and posters like that all over the place, from Pediatrician/OBGYN/Nurse-Midwife offices to parenting magazines to pro-breastfeeding websites. In 4+ years as a breastfeeding mother I have NEVER come out the top of a shirt to feed a baby in public and rarely even do so at home because their nails go from clipped to SHARP in the blink of an eye and I want to protect my skin with a layer of fabric!). I’m a photographer and understand the draw to position the breastfeeding mother being photographed that way – I have enough photographs of myself breastfeeding my children to realize how little it conveys the idea of “breastfeeding” to have mom lift her shirt from the bottom like most moms do regularly from my experience. Then theirs the marketing of “breastfeeding covers” (which make me want to SCREAM… It’s like drawing a big “come over here and harass me, I’m doing something that involves the participation of my BOOB in your presence!” – people have looked down at my in-a-sling nursing babe from over my shoulder while I was using a motorized cart and not realize he wasn’t just sleeping, how’s THAT for discreet!)

teething baby trying to bite his brother, time for eyes back on the kids~!

Because lots of those women feeding their babies formula are getting vouchers from WIC (Women, Infants, Children)programs to pay for that MEGA expensive formula.

Now if more of those Moms were educated, supported, accommodated on the job and encouraged to breastfeed until 12 months of age, our government would save lots of subsidy dollars. (Before anyone gets all crazy about why should a breastfeeding Mama get longer breaks to pump, let me remind you about all those extra 10 minute smoke breaks taken by employees. And smoking will CAUSE health issues while breastfeeding promotes health for Mama and Baby.)

But then, Danny you do make a point that fixing baseball might be more important than the government supporting breastfeeding. So, I’m thinking we won’t pay much attention to your correlation anyway.