The Atlantic

We get this pseudo (ok maybe actually) intellectual magazine every month titled The Atlantic. The magazine has been around forever; might even be the oldest magazine in the US.

Every month we are on the verge of canceling it, but then there will be one really great article in it. This month there are two really great articles.

The first one is entitled, The Case Against Breast Feeding, by Hanna Rosin. (Click this sentence to read the article.) The article questions the notion that "breast is best." Best for whom? The mom? The kid? The family? Who will be harmed by having not been breast fed?

I sent the article around to friends who were or are currently breast feeding. The comments have ranged from: "I would encourage anyone to do it for as long as possible but will never be Nazi-ish about it." To: "While I appreciate her frustration that the comment that 'breastfeeding is free' doesn't take into account the time that the mother is spending doing it, the value of my time right now is in providing for my child." To: "She just articulated everything I've been feeling over the past months. 'Slavish' is exactly the right word."

Naturally life always bring about varying perspectives, but what I think the article added to the national conversation on breast feeding is that you have to decide to do what is best for you and your family. Enough with people going around making you feel bad because you are not breastfeeding. That just seems so high school/peer pressure-ie.

I will write about the other article I loved from this month's Atlantic tomorrow.