Rep. Michele Bachmann, Stay Out of My Bra

Dear Representative Bachmann:

I am part of the "nanny state."

You don't know me. Nor, as far as I know, do you know any of the women I see each week at my daughter's preschool: moms of toddlers and infants, many of whom have had the good fortune of knowing their mothers' milk. Though, I'm sure, plenty of your constituents are me.

I understand you, too, breast-fed. Mazel tov. I'm so glad it worked for you, for your children, for your family.

But I can't help but wonder -- after you falsely claimed the government of buying breast pumps for everyone, and decried the new IRS tax deduction for pumps and other nursing supplies -- what you remember of that time. ("I've given birth to five babies and I breast-fed every single one," you told Laura Ingraham on her radio show. "To think that government has to go out and buy my breast pump . . . that's the new definition of a nanny state.")

When you were breast-feeding, did you ever have to leave your baby? I mean, not leave but, you know, go outside. Alone. You know what I mean. During those heady early months, when you sometimes feel like a full-on cow, when the feedings come fast and thick, and you are constantly pressing on your breasts to see which one seems fuller. The months when the feedings are hot 'n' heavy.

Did you, as I did, stick with obsessive fealty to the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation to serve those five children nothing but breast milk for the first six months of life?

Actually, it's not important what you did. Keep it at home.

But you and I know that the one saving grace of sanity for so many women, the one thing that allows them to get back to work, to support their families, but also to (dios mio!) step outside alone once in awhile -- to get back to the gym, to have a beer with a friend -- is a breast pump.

Could it be that allowing flex spending accounts and tax deductions to ease the burden of those pricey Medela pumps (alongside, it must be emphasized, flex spending that can be spent on Lasik eye surgery, voluntary sterilizations, and orthodontics, and a flashy pair of new prescription sunglasses, among many, many other things) allows a woman to meet the nutritional, preventative health needs of her newborn as well as her own needs?

A breast pump means not only that a woman can work. It means a woman can determine when and how she feeds her child. It provides freedom with a bit less guilt. It gives control. It allows her to continuously stay with her decision to breast-feed even if she can't do every single feeding. (It's not fun. It's so much nicer to snuggle up with baby, every time, but that's just not always practical.)

Did you then stick with the regime, even after your child first tasted gummy baby cereal, progressed through sweet potatoes and onto yogurt? Did you keep on keeping on, until a year or beyond?

Actually, I don't care if you did. But I did. And a lot of mothers I know did, are doing, will do, have done.

It's tiresome to reiterate all the health benefits of breast-feeding, but here they are: It gives antibodies. It prevents asthma, allergies, appears to reduce the potential for obesity. It might even make a child smarter. If a pump allows a woman enough freedom to consider breast-feeding past her paltry maternity leave, how is that not a public health imperative?

Granted, kids in America who are born into homes with water that is clean and futures that are bright often start out with enough advantages that the differences aren't that big between babes who are formula-fed and those who take only the breast. No one need force herself to be chained, nipple to mouth, for 12 months or 24 months, or even just six months if it will cause her undue stress, if her milk doesn't come in, if her body and soul and mind aren't into it.

And for those children who are not born into privilege in this country (and there are far too many), perhaps the chance at a few months on the breast will give those kids a boost they sorely need. Maybe those immunities will keep those kids in school a few extra days, instead of out sick.

Usually the phrase "breast-feeding controversy" swirls around the rights of mothers to feed their children in public, safe from harassment, not from whether the bit of extra cash they can save by using pre-tax dollars to purchase their pumps contribute to "nanny states" or force anyone into joining La Leche League.

But I suspect you know that.

So please, Rep. Bachmann, stay out of my bra. And I promise not to chortle if you deduct the cost of all five of your children's glasses, braces (and even the gasoline you bought to take them to and from appointments). Because all of that you have not questioned.

All the best,

Sarah