<<I recognize it may be a foreign concept but this is taking place in North America and there is very solid economic reasoning behind the policy.  Please don't accept something just because it is current practice or the 'military' way. >>

With all due respect, there is a *huge* difference in both the size of and commitments that the US military has versus the militaries of other countries.  I do not mean denigrate any other countries militaries, but the sheer size of the US military alone makes the idea of a full year of maternity leave unthinkable at this point in time.  We have military personnel that number over one million and fully 25% of those are women.  Of those, most are of childbearing age and many do start families.  Are you suggesting that they all be allowed to have a full year off, the husbands too...then how will we fulfill the many missions/commitments we, the US military have all over the world?  We have military personnel ALL over the world doing peace-keeping missions, humanitarian relief, and yes, war-fighting.  Our numbers for these various missions number in the hundreds of thousands of personnel versus the thousands for other militaries.  What works for smaller navies and armies does not always work in the larger ones!!

And I haven't even begun to get into the political ramifications, nor the problems the women themselves would face (and already do) from the men in their commands over getting a full year off from the military.  They already begrudge us the 6 weeks we get off and year-long deployment deferment.  If you haven't served in the military yourself, you have no idea the feelings towards women, especially mothers, within the military.  As a case in point, when the US Navy changed its deferment policy to 1 year, there was a skyrocketing of the pregnancy rates...women were getting pregnant in huge numbers to get out of deploying.  It has a ripple effect, now someone else has to take her place at the command.  The guys *HATE* this and there is a backlash against the women, and this spills over onto the women who want to breastfeed upon their return.  The sad stories I hear from mothers being ridiculed, or having it implied that they are 'slackers' for breastfeeding their babies is enough to make your heart break...yet they do it anyways, sometimes against extreme odds.

I could go on and on... I really wish that year-long maternity leaves could be implemented I the US military as it has been in other countries.  But that is not going to happen in the US military anytime soon, for one-you'd lose the tremendous strides women have made in the military by doing so. I am trying to help the mothers who are in the US military, right now, today with the policies we do have to work with (and that took huge time & effort to get passed).  They don't have the luxury of a full year off, they don't often have the luxury of even 4 months before they deploy (US Army).  They are lucky that they have any type of policy or regulation to even show their supervisors (and you'd be surprised the numbers of military moms and supervisors that *don't* know the breastfeeding policy of their own service!)  So...we have to help the mothers *where they are* and that means giving them the tools to make breastfeeding and pumping as do-able as possible.  Getting the word out to the rank and file (junior enlisted) that are policies in place, how to talk with their supervisors about pumping breaks, and how to fit pumping into sometimes very erratic schedules and working hours.  And yes, sometimes it means telling a mom the best way to wean her baby when an overseas deployment is upcoming and she *has* to go.

Dreaming about what we might like or about what is going on in another military isn't going to help the military women with their boots on the ground and baby in their arms *right now....*  (maybe for my granddaughter's generation!)

Robyn Roche-Paull

BS: MCH, IBCLC, LLLL
US Navy Vet  
Author and Founder-Breastfeeding in Combat Boots

Visit my website http://www.breastfeedingincombatboots.com 
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/breastfeedingincombatboots
E-mail:  [log in to unmask]

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