Don't let reality hurt people's feelings or anything...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/13/health/13brea.html?ex=1150344000&en=2d8cdc2ace79a5a1&ei=5087%0A

So basically public health officials have found a relatively (not easy, but following millenia of traditions) simple way to make babies grow into healthier adults, and to reduce risks of SIDS, cancer, and other deadly infectious diseases in women and children, and sets out to let the public know. A public service, right? I mean, people want to know how to improve their and their offspring's quality of life, and how the hell else would, say, an accountant who got a B- in high school biology in the 1990s know about micronutrients, cell mutation, etc?

But then, what do people with MDs know? Smarter than these doctors is some idealistic liberal from a nonprofit. Instead of being grateful to the Dept of Health and Human Services,

"I'm concerned about the guilt that mothers will feel," said Ellen Galinsky, president of the center. "It's hard enough going back to work."

Well if they feel so guilty, they need to talk with their doctor about how to change the behavior. Or better yet, they should lobby employers in this country to either pay men enough so their wives can stay home, or to not make a woman's life impossible if she has to/chooses to be a working mom. But in the short term, it's not like we don't have laws in this country that say employers have to accomodate medical needs - in other words, present your anti-pump employer with the option of honoring your doctor's note or tangoing with your attorney. Open and shut case.

But for Pete sake. Scientific facts and hard data are just that. Breastfeeding is good for babies, advancing age is bad for fertility, never giving birth ups your chances of gynelogical cancers, women earn 76 cents on the dollar to men because more of us choose low-paying jobs, married people are physically/emotionally/financially healthier than their single counterparts, your dating pool is greatly diminished if you're unattractive, poor, or have a communicable disease, you really do need to know English to get by in the developed world, and condoms don't protect against all STDs. Life's a bitch like that.

If the truth hurts people's feelings, too freaking bad, but political correctness should NOT stand in the way of women knowing how to take care of their own and the next generation's health. When the hell did it become wrong to relay news and facts that happen to be not what some people want to hear?

And a shout-out to my own mom for keeping me diabetes-, SIDS-, etc free.