Well after 4+ months I finally found a good reason to dust off my laptop. Breastfeeding exclusively means I spent a LOT of time with my baby asleep or half asleep on my lap nursing away with his eyes closed. I wouldn’t call this free time exactly, but to ease the boredom rather than doing something constructive, you know like reading an actual book, I’ve fallen into the deep pits of mommy blogs (thanks Google Now).
I find the click-bait blog entries of the Skeptical OB particularly fascinating. Today she published quite an interesting one:
Unfortunately I’m not familiar with any studies that looked directly at formula feeding versus breastfeeding and environmental impact. However according to the EPA a cow produces the same amount of waste as 20-40 humans and eats 100 pounds of feed each day, where as a human eats between 3-5 pounds of food per day. A breastfeeding human only needs 500 extra calories a day to produce enough milk for her baby, so I assume that they are only eating at the higher end of that amount. Although cows produce more milk than a human, at 6-7 gallons versus about 24 ounces, I don’t think we can say that a cow is capable of feeding 20-40 human babies. Which is where we get into a real pickle because obviously the 6-7 gallons a cow is producing is intended for her calf, not a human infant (or adult really) and at least from my perspective there is an ethical issue of impregnanting cows, having them carry a calf to term and then slaughtering that calf for veal/giving that calf formula so that we can feed our own infants formula.
Obviously the most environmentally friendly thing anyone can do as far as food choices is to go vegan, but I’m unconvinced here that even if a breastfeeding person is consuming animal products they are still producing as much waste/eating as much food as a dairy cow and whatever waste/food they are eating is not dramatically increased by them producing milk for their child anyways.
So what about breastfeeding supplies? Well…all people who’ve experienced a pregnancy are going to need breast pads (milk comes in regardless of if a person chooses not to nurse), new bras, probably mostly new everything clothing wise because the human body changes during pregnancy. As far as the plastic parts in breast pumps etc etc etc the same questions can be asked of formula feeding. How green are bottles, rubber nipples, brushes to clean bottles, pacifiers, burp clothes, plus all of the extra hot water to sterilize and clean all these things? What about the energy required to get formula from the factory to the store, the extra gas used to go pick up formula from the store or to have it shipped to someone’s house? What about the energy used to heat up a bottle? What about all the tins and plastic bottles that formula comes in, how green are they?
I don’t think it is an outlandish assumption that if I’m breastfeeding my child from my breast, no bottles, pumps, electricity, special clothing (I bought a breastfeeding cami and a breastfeeding bra, ruined the cami in the dryer and the bra isn’t supportive enough, so I am back to wearing athletic bras which I needed to buy during my pregnancy, my boobs started growing pretty much as soon as I found out I was pregnant, I still have tank tops to cover my belly that I have owned since I before I stopped breastfeeding my daughter whose 9) that it is more environmentally friendly than opening up a can of formula, measuring it out with a plastic scoop, putting it in a plastic bottle, adding warm water, shaking it up or mixing it and feeding it to a baby through a silicone or rubber nipple (do they still make rubber ones?).
As far as working well as birth control even Planned Parenthood says that breastfeeding can be an effective form of birth control if a woman is breastfeeding exclusively, feeding her baby every 4 hours and her period has not returned, at least for the first 6 months following a pregnancy. Certainly there are BETTER forms of birth control but they are not always accessible to low income women in developing countries.
Yet the claim here that I find most outlandish is that somehow women are being forced to breastfeed. Encouraging is not forcing, normalizing breastfeeding does not necessarily demonize formula feeding. Saying it is worse from a environmental perspective is not an exaggeration it is a reality that still leaves parents with the option of formula feeding their babies. Which…breastfeeding rates are on the rise with 79% of parents in the US initiating breastfeeding and 49% continuing to breastfeed at 6 months. So we shouldn’t talk about the benefits of breastfeeding to avoid offending the 21% who have chosen for whatever reasons not to breastfeed? Or should we encourage breastfeeding and help more people continue to breastfeed so that these numbers continue to go up? The answer seems pretty obvious to me.
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