Breastfeeding Research: Smart Babies, Dumb Mothers?

You may have heard about the recent scandalous stereotype brought to light by three psychological studies at Montana State University: Childless college students perceive women who breastfeed as less competent human beings than non-breastfeeding women.

This seems like a strange view given the widely accepted belief that breast milk is the optimum food for babies, as well as the recent study suggesting that the longer a mother breastfeeds the larger her baby's brain.

But that study was probably off the radar of the participants of the triple study, collectively "Spoiled Milk: An Experimental Examination of Bias Against Mothers Who Breastfeed," which can be summarized as follows.

Women who breastfeed are:

• "incompetent" (study 1);
• "specific to conditions that sexualized the breast" (study 2); and are
• "significantly less competent in general, in math and work specifically, and [are] less likely to be hired..." (study 3).

What does it mean? Is it a Montana thing? Should breastfeeding women everywhere feel outraged?

Not me. Sure, I've experienced bias here in Seattle and in my hometown Eugene, but I'm leaving it behind me. Let's talk instead about our smart babies.

According to the mammal brain development study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the long period of dependency characterized by nursing our babies for up to three years following our nine-month pregnancies (aka "maternal investment") is necessary to support the growth of our enormous 1300cc brains.

In summary, the brain development study showed that the length of the pregnancy determines brain size at birth and the period of lactation determines brain growth after birth.

Proposed follow-up study: Were the college kids in the bias study breastfed? Can we get some brain measurements?

Sources:

Durham University. "Mothers' hard work pays off with big brains for their babies." Dur.ak.uk. 29 Mar 2011.

Smith, Jessi, et al. Montana State University. "Spoiled Milk: An Experimental Examination of Bias Against Mothers Who Breastfeed (Abstract)." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18 March 2011.

Originally published on Examiner.com.