How the US got so dependent on baby formula

One of the more crass responses to the ongoing formula shortage has been that mothers worried about empty shelves where their infant’s formula used to be should just breastfeed instead.

Breastfeeding alone would never be enough. The reality is there are families for whom breastfeeding is not an option, for medical or lifestyle reasons, and many more for whom it is not enough on its own.

But it’s also true that the US doesn’t do all that it could to support mothers who want to breastfeed their children. Instead, the patchwork of the US health system, the pernicious influence of special interests, and a failure especially to support marginalized families have put the country at a disadvantage compared to other wealthy nations, feeding a national dependence on formula that left the country more vulnerable in the most recent shortage and would make another factory failure equally damaging.

America has long been an outlier among its economic peers in breastfeeding rates: One 2005 OECD report placed the US 24th out of 28 countries in the percentage of its children who have ever breastfed. Breastfeeding rates in the United States and worldwide have been growing since then, part of a concerted global public health campaign, but the US still lags behind much of the rest of the industrialized world.

In particular, while the country has done a better job of getting new moms to attempt breastfeeding when their child is first born, some of those parents struggle to maintain the practice. About 80 percent of American children have breastfed at least once, but the percentages still doing so exclusively at three months (about 45 percent) and the American Academy of Pediatrics-recommended six months (less than 30 percent) are substantially lower.

The dramatic dropoff reflects the failures of the US health system to support women who are trying to breastfeed their children. It’s can be easy to get started. It’s harder to sustain.

(snip)

Some of the problems that contribute to low breastfeeding rates are familiar American health care woes. Too many Americans don’t have health insurance or regular access to a doctor or lactation consultant who could help them work through rough patches. They might not have paid family leave, which the US does not guarantee. Their employer may not provide them time and space to pump breast milk once they go back to work; federal law mandating such time and space has plenty of loopholes. US women with lower incomes and Black women in general regardless of income have lower breastfeeding rates than women with higher incomes and white women.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23159688/baby-formula-shortage-us-breastfeeding-rates

In many cultures, the "skilled lactation consultant" could be your mother, auntie, or even your best friend. Here, because of high mobility rates and problems cited in the article, women often don't even have that.