The Challenges of Breastfeeding for First Time Moms

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LZ Granderson: People assume breastfeeding is easy, but it's not so straightforward. He says many women struggle to figure out how to do it when their baby has never done it before. LZ: There's this sort of societal pressure around breastfeeding that puts such a lot of pressure on moms in these very first moments of life. "If your baby doesn't immediately crawl up your belly and start nursing, that's not the thing that's going to make you a good parent or a good mom"

Economist and author Emily Oster of Brown University talks about her book Cribsheet with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Oster explores what the data and evidence can tell us about parenting in areas such as breastfeeding, sleep habits, discipline, vaccination, and food allergies. Oster often finds that commonly held views on some of these topics are not well supported by the evidence while on others, the evidence appears decisive. Oster thoughtfully explores the challenges of using empirical work and balances our sometimes ignorance with common sense.