On the Baby Formula Shortage
and talking about our bodies
On LinkedIn, I’m seeing posts from working mothers about the psychological, physical, emotional and economic costs of breastfeeding. These posts have been a response to being told that women should breastfeed in light of the current baby formula shortage. As someone who would like to be a parent someday, it’s both edifying and devastating to read these posts and learn about yet another tax forced upon our bodies simply because we’re women.
First, there’s the pink tax that corporations force on products meant for women that makes these products more expensive than their equivalents for men (i.e. body wash). Then there’s the pregnancy tax, a slew of physical transformations, debilitations, and surgical scars brought on by carrying and birthing a child. And now, there’s the breastfeeding tax that’s exacerbated by the formula shortage caused by a mix of supply disruptions and governmental trade policies and regulations that placed the baby formula industry in the hands of three manufacturers. Couple all of this with the pay inequity that women experiences, gender discrimination and inadequate accommodations for women’s bodies in the workplace - IT’S TOO DAMN MUCH.
I applaud the women who are publicly talking about their bodies on LinkedIn and the physical and emotional toll they have experienced or are experiencing with breastfeeding. Because we need to talk about our bodies if we want gender equality and more accommodating workplaces for women. Because laws that try to police and control what we can or cannot do with our bodies stem from an ignorance of our bodies and a lack of empathy for their limits. This is no more evident than seeing commentators (particularly men) telling women to breastfeed as a solution to the formula shortage or shaming women who are not able to breastfeed.
Our bodies don’t come with a set of controls for milk production. We need to talk about our bodies to bring about empathy and change. And we need allyship in talking about our bodies.
