[pbhjpbhj]

>No reason it has to be the mother though.

Breastfeeding.

I don't lactate.

Now that our youngest is >1yo (as with his elder brother) then we're back to sharing labour and child care + chores 50-50 (in a way that's probably not open to most people). We've chosen this lifestyle and are below the official poverty line in our country because of it.

However, the little one is still not completely weaned and so needs contact with his mother at times during normal working hours.

Yes it's possible to pump and bottle-feed but breastfeeding is more than just nourishment.

[jtheory]

Nature does tend to push the mother into the stay-at-home role, which is why I'm very much in favor of programs to support greater integration of kids into the workplace to try and balance things more towards fairness -- childcare at work (you take your coffee break, the mother takes her breast-feeding break) is one solution. Allowing mothers to work mostly remotely while still breast-feeding is another.

Here in France the approach is well-funded child care that's available for very young babies -- this is a boon to mothers maintaining their careers, but it's certainly bad for breast-feeding more than a couple of months.