Seems a bit bizarre seeing that mothers in most cases will need to spend more time with their babies. After all, there are certain things like breastfeeding that only a mother can do.
Hmm, a quick search tells me that roughly half of all babies are breastfed after 6 months in the US. Seems acceptable to cater for potential needs of half the population (assuming numbers are the same obviously).
I was home with my kid when he turned 1 until he was 1.5 using this system in Sweden. Being a guy, I didn't breastfeed him. Kid still appear functional.
> After all, there are certain things like breastfeeding
Mother's can and do express milk to be fed to babies in bottles; the fact that a baby is on breastmilk doesn't require the mother to be with them 24/7, and formula is a thing that exists.
I would assume that there is some kind of maternal bond, so that it would be best for the mother to primarily be exposed to the newborn at least in the first 6-12 months. I doubt sucking on a plastic bottle would assist with the maternal bond. What do you think?
It does, though. A lot of skin-to-skin contact is vital for new babies. Both parents should have lots of skin-to-skin contact, face time, and direct caregiving exposure with baby.
The method of milk delivery is not as important as being with the baby.
Funny when you are on paternity leave and the with your baby 24seven you develop a similar bond. Oh and babies love bottles nearly as much as breasts. (I think breastfeeding is really important in the first few months important and mine was 100% breastfed until 5 months but towards the end of the first year the benefits in a country with clean drinking water are minimal.)
Formula that adjusts formulation every day by detecting the chemical balance of the baby during nursing does not exist yet (ever? It’s an interesting biology challenge).
I dont think a lot of people claim that the mother isnt most important for, at the very leasy, the first 6 months and up to 12 months. I took my leave at about 14-15 months age, and that was more or less perfect in my mind.
There is pretty much exactly one thing that only a mother can do once the baby has been born, and you just named it.
For many reasons, a mother might not be willing or able to breastfeed her child or to do so exclusively, so you'd need additional feeding arrangements in those situations.
Even if the mother is breastfeeding, in practice she might appreciate being able to express some of her milk and have the father feed the baby sometimes.
Things could be much more even with early years childcare than they are in many places at the moment, and in my experience there are a lot of mothers and a lot of fathers who wish it were so.
I'm not sure what the point of this is, you can post any studies you want but that wont change the fact that plenty of people wont breastfeed for one reason or another
Looks like you guys have reached a deadlock :) It's not all about IQ though. Breastmilk works way better than formula for general health, it helps the baby fight infections and build a good immune system.
I recently read a book by a swedish immunologist on breastfeeding and atleast according to that author that is not really true. Breastmilk does help to fight infections but it does not help to build a good immune system. If anything, the opposite is true since less infections gives the immune system less practice. Some animals can transfer parts of the mothers immune system via breastmilk, humans can not. And even the temporary protection against infections from breastmilk is very limited. If you live in a country without good quality drinking water breastmilk is great though.
>Seems a bit bizarre seeing that mothers in most cases will need to spend more time with their babies
And in those cases the mother needs extreme support. Like a father around to help her out with all the little things constantly and to give her a break.
It seems fairly bizarre that you think caring for a newborn is a 1 person job no problem!
Would make more sense to point out how ridiculously short maternity leave is in many places. Like the US isn't it a couple of weeks or something and not even paid?
I noticed when visiting the US that breastfeeding was not very normal. Like they don't even teach it in a standard hospital.
Finnish moms are getting longer maternity leave than most countries in the world with this system. If other countries can manage with their short maternity leaves, I am sure Finnish mothers can manage too.
I mean I agree with you in principle that moms are needed for longer time than dads, but too often such questions are raised in an a disingenuous fashion to push back against gender equality.
What we do in Norway is that moms get some extra time at work for things like pumping. I believe the first year you get something like 1-2 hours at work for breast feeding.
As a dad I was feeding my child milk which had been pumped earlier.
> I noticed when visiting the US that breastfeeding was not very normal. Like they don't even teach it in a standard hospital.
On the contrary, that was one of the first things they teach after giving birth (apart from diaper changing). They also stressed heavily on the importance of nursing and set us up with a lactation consultant if we needed help in the future.
It's working fine in practice and in my circle of friends almost every father took at least two months off.
Those months can be taken at any time in the first year and normally overlap the mother's parental leave, so the husband can help her and spend time with his baby.
Yes so mom has work of feeding and pumping and dad just gets to feed. Completely unequal
That and half the benefit of breastfeeding comes from direct suckling. I will never understand dads who want to feed their kid so much that they make mom pump. Fathers have been close to their children for millennia before we decided in the last century that they need to feed their newborns too. Its okay if you and mom are not the same... Your baby certainly doesnt see you that way
