The Mommy Wars

Choices are wonderful, but they are dependant on informed choice, and if any of you have ever seen the movie, The Corporation, you will know that the sole goal of corporations is to survive and make a profit. They are utterly amoral and if telling the truth gets in the way of making a profit, we heck let's all lie...

So I had a chat with Manuela last night, the fabulous Shoe Goddess, and she made a great point, that we woman really are hard on ourselves.

And I'm thinking that in the Mommy Wars, we have been targetting the wrong people, each other.

Take for example, the fights about choices of daycare vs. SAHM, bfing vs. formula? A lot of that is because of lousy media reporting of "studies." Many of these "studies" are completely bogus, proving either nothing at all, or whatever the funders want it to say.

And in the end they blame women for their choices instead of providing us with really good studies that have evidence based stats behind them, so we can make informed choices. For example, Jack Newman's book has a great analysis of what is in formula. Everyone knows that breastmilk has some toxins in it, because the media tells us so, but no one ever lists the toxins in formula. Breastmilk has less than 10ppm silicone in it, breasts with implants make milk with 35 ppm silicone, but formula has over 300 ppm silicone. (This also applies to other toxins, not just silicone.)

Bad quality formula is totally unnecessary. Formula manufacturers could make it safer. But they choose not too, because they love profit more than human beings. Instead of suing the companies, we continue to fight each other, to blame each other instead of blaming the companies that make products more dangerous.

Think about it, defective cars are the subject of lawsuits all the time. When was the last time you saw a lawsuit about defective formula? Nooo, we just stand around blaming the "evil mother" who "chose" to use formula. Her choice was based on the belief that Health Canada and her doctors and her society would help her protect her baby.

And instead they blame her. And we all chime in. *Sigh*