ughhhh politics!!!!! ironically enough, i once ate, slept and breathed politics as it was my major in college... but the reality of learning how the system worked disgusted me so much that i haven't done a thing with my major since. except for the occassional opining on a current issue. case in point- how mrs. obama has been advocating breastfeeding as ammunition on the fight against obesity, and instead of women hearalding it as awesome (woo hoo! someone with influence gets it- breast milk totally rocks!) we have stupid attention whores who think that the government should stay out of women's lives (THE IRONY OF THIS IS KILLING ME...re: take a look at their stance on women's reproductive rights, etc).
basically, mrs. obama is taking her "mom in chief" job seriously and is getting the importance of breastfeeding out in the public eye where it should be. sure, not everyone can breastfeed or pump, but offering a tax deduction on those super expensive pumps might help some- which is better than none at all! breastfeeding is so important in the first few months, and since a lot of women are unable to stay home and have to go back to work after a too-short and probably unpaid maternity leave... pumping sure does help with their infants health and staying connected to their new baby.
instead of praising mrs. obama for opening a dialog about the importance of breastfeeding, pumping if necessary (to me and millions of other women, it IS)- the loudest opposition, who happen to be women, are taking this and making it into an entirely political issue and are missing the point. why can't women put aside their political differences and unite on how important breastfeeding is???? why can't we push legislation for the importance of letting working women take pump breaks in a quiet place instead of forced to hide away in a janitors closet? why is it wrong to give tax breaks on simple breast feeding supplies when (if you have a good cpa-which many dont) you can deduct so many other things?
here is a link to a good article... but beware, it will open up a can of worms when you see how some who are in power are trying really hard to screw us all over. and that, my dears, is why i hate politics!!!!
When I announced I was pregnant first time around, living in NC, I was told that my employer legally had to provide me with a suitable place to pump and time to do it. Seeing as I left the country before Livylu was born it was never an issue...
ReplyDeleteHow about opening a whole other can of worms.... what the good old US of A needs to address is it's appallingly bad policy on maternity leave. In nearly every other developed country in the world women are offered paid time off to look after their child, in the UK it's 9 months. NINE MONTHS of paid leave. Some enlightened companies in the US offer up to 6 weeks paid leave, pathetic in my opinion but still, it's something. And don't even get me started on the cost of health care.... talk about a whole other can of worms!