Confessions of a Former Lactator

What new mother doesn't want the VERY best for her child? And what parents in their right minds would choose an expensive, time-consuming, high-maintenance sub-par product to feed their newborn?

And yet every day women make the personal choice not to breastfeed their babies. I'm no granola lady, but it just made sense that the high-quality, right-amount, right-temperature, low maintenance liquid I was carrying around in my chest for free was preferable to some expensive can in the grocery.

I'm not going to say that my children never had a drop of formula. I had a great friend who could have nursed triplets who could get a full day supply of milk for her baby in one pumping session. But I did get to the point where the babies needed supplementing when I wasn't around.

I'm going to get off the soap box now, because what I really want to share is the story of the police officer in China who was rescuing babies during the earthquake. A lactating mother herself, she voluntarily began nursing the hungry orphans found among earthquake survivors.

And her local officials did not snicker, "someone just said breast, oh, no." They celebrated her as China's number one mother.