[telebell]

Emily Oster has reviewed the literature pretty comprehensively and the best evidence we have is that breastfeeding has some short term benefits over formula, especially if you live somewhere without safe water. But no significant long term benefits.

Bf is really hard for a lot of women, and other women (me) don’t enjoy it. It’s really painful in the beginning, means that I’m solely responsible for feedings and night wakeups, puts me at risk of mastitis, thrush and postpartum depression (probably exacerbated by lack of sleep), requires me to stay close to home for months. There’s nothing special about breastfeeding apart from this feeling people have that “natural” is better. You probably wouldn’t limit your own food intake to what’s “natural” - what you can kill or grow within walking distance of your home - why would you limit your baby’s in the same way?

[Balgair]

> ... and postpartum depression (probably exacerbated by lack of sleep)

I remember back in the early 2010's there was this 'hack' going around where you could manage to only sleep for 2 hours or something a day, but you had to grab sleep every 4 hours for 15 minutes to get the REM cycle in. I'm likely totally off on the schedule, but the gist was very little sleep.

Recently, a sibling became a parent and I was reminded of that 'hack' and told them. My sibling just laughed and said 'Oh, so nerds discovered motherhood huh?'.