What Matters More: Policy or Culture?

If you think extending maternity leave would improve breastfeeding rates among American moms, I have some bad news.

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Without question, one of the biggest barriers to breastfeeding is that American mothers have no guaranteed paid maternity leave. The fact that so many women have to separate themselves from their babies after 6-8 weeks in order to make a wage is barbaric.

Despite living in the richest country on the planet, I’m often depressed and jealous of the plentiful (and humane) maternity benefits afforded to moms in places like Norway, Sweden or Germany.

Granted, those are countries with robust social welfare states and effective democratic-socialist parties, so the comparison is a little unfair given that our political system has all the sophistication of a backyard wrestling match between a circus freak and a crocodile on angel dust.

Let’s pick another Western industrialized democracy that’s also devolved into a bit of shit show: the United Kingdom!

So what if somehow, overnight, the US lawmakers found the political will to actually invest in mothers and babies and pass 39 weeks of paid maternity leave, allowing women to collect 90% of their salary-- just like they do in the United Kingdom?