This first week is a very important holiday (of sorts!) for millions of lactating womyn, according to this website: World Breastfeeding Week. The organizers of this week, which is celebrated in 120 countries annually, strive to bring attention to the fact that breastfeeding can reduce infant mortality, and they need your help letting the message leak out: "Remember to send us pictures, news, media reports about your activities and you'll receive a free breastfeeding photo calendar 2008." Okay! But one lady of our acquaintance won't be joining in the festivities: Post scold Andrea Peyser. Turns out that she's... a mom? (OMG, what?) Also, she's pretty skeptical about the whole "milk from your body is good for your baby's health" thing.

In a column entitled "BREAST-FEED GESTAPO IN A MILK 'BILK'" (God, and Robert Olen Butler got a Pulitzer??), the Peys writes, "Take it from a mom. The pressure to breast-feed can make a new mother feel as if she lives in a forced-labor camp - where the uniform is half-nude." She goes on to decry the city's new policy of omitting free formula from postnatal city-sponsored gift bags for new moms, wondering whether the claims that breastfeeding leads to decreased breast and ovarian cancer in the mother, less postpartum depression, more bonding, and less child abuse are just empty claims from "renegade docs making stuff up."

"We'll see if the next generation is smarter, healthier and stronger than the last one. Or, if stressed-out mommies killed themselves for nothing," she concludes. Holy Jesus, Andrea. We're simultaneously glad and sad you're not our mom!

Breast-Feed Gestapo In A Milk 'Bilk' [NYP]
[Image: Splash]