Finally, a Guy Who Argues Against Breastfeeding Out of Concern for His Wife and Not the Sexiness of Her Boobs

Typically when men weigh in on women’s issues like rape, abortion, childbirth, etc., it can generate big collective eye roll, since it’s annoying that the personal business of women’s bodies are politicized to begin with. Also, they tend to sound like idiot assholes, usually because their opinions on the matter-whether a pro-life politician or a needy husband-are rooted in their own selfish interests. So it’s refreshing to see an essay written by a new father arguing against the “breast is best” gestapo because of its negative impact on a mother’s mental and emotional health, and not because he was worried that her tits would be desexualized.

In a piece for The Atlantic, Chris Kornelis discusses his wife’s difficulty breastfeeding, producing milk, and getting their son to latch on saying, “There wasn’t much milk, but there were plenty of tears.” He looked at the struggle as a “team effort,” not allowing his wife to feel like she failed, but rather, that they gave up on breastfeeding together, since neither of them were getting any rest as they were struggling with the pumps in the brief periods that their son slept between feedings.