Breast-Feeding Isn’t Free. This Is How Much It Really Costs.
Insisting on the ‘breast is free’ mantra is deceiving and unfair
By Anna Momigliano
I have been breast-feeding for almost six months now and loved every minute of it. My fiance says that, when I attach our baby daughter to my breast, I “glow full of love.” But while enjoying this beautiful experience I also have, less poetically, kept track of all the money we’ve spent on it.
Because despite what you might hear from some mommy blogs, breast-feeding support groups and even from some health providers, for many women, breast-feeding is far from free.
We have paid about $690 in breastfeeding-related products and services. Almost $250 went into the purchase of an electric pump; at first I tried to stick to a cheap model ($45), but it was noisy to the point that I soon realized that, if I wanted to keep both pumping and my sanity, I needed a better one (found it on sale for $200). About $140 went to a lactation consultant, because Baby and I had a rocky start, but I also had the luck to have an affordable breast-feeding clinic close to home, with both a midwife and a pediatrician available for a weekly hour-long meeting. (U.S. moms should know their health insurance probably covers this — and a pump — but a public-funded…
