Solution: a real family and medical leave policy that doesn’t make you choose between time with your child and the ability to feed that child.

Mistress_Scorpio and lauren – This study conducted in Sweden. Sweden has excellent maternity leave policies. (16 months per child, which can be shared between the 2 parents.) Therefore, this difference should not have to do with work situation, as everyone can take the time off.

lauren – its a start, but I think that employers should be allowed to set their own as well. (I’d be screwed if this were implemented because suddenly my pumping breaks would likely be unpaid!)

er, that should be “without hiring someone else”

cigarette breaks don’t usually take much longer than bathroom breaks. When I worked in a restaurant, a 15-min smoke break woulda raised eyebrows and 20min would’ve got you fired. I doubt seriously most moms could get much pumping done after setting the damn thing up in the space of 15min. If the job does get done, like if you work in an office or something, or you’re a dental assistant who can ask that appointments where you assist be made around your pump breaks that’s great…but in a daycare, leaving the kid-teacher ratio out of whack for 3 15-30min breaks a day would be out of the question, and in many other situations where the mom is the only one responsible for manning a store, or a reception desk, it would be impossible. Congrats, Rosana, on being able to make it work. As long as the job gets done, you are absolutely right that it needn’t matter.

*yawn* I’m nursing a 4 year old and a two year old, I do not have a job, the last job I had was for minimum wage. I do not have a high school diploma -I do have a college diploma. My husband’s income puts us in the “poor” but just above the “poverty line” though where we live with the cost of housing etc we are under the “poverty” line as defined by the ability to weather financial problems without assistance from family.

All these studies do is help government target resources to where its most needed -but ultimately how long you nurse is a matter of personal responsibility. I could have given up when I had problems, I could have been ignorant and listened to the bad advice from my hospital assigned pediatrician and family doctor. But I chose not to be willfully ignorant, I made what I believe to be the best choice for my kids and I stuck with it. It required no money and probably less effort than forcibly weaning.