Why Emily Oster Breastfed When Her Data Says Formula Is Fine

If you read Crib Sheet during pregnancy or kept Expecting Better on your nightstand, you already know Emily Oster. She's the economist who reads the parenting studies the rest of us pretend to. The one who told a whole generation of women, with actual data, that we could relax about a lot of things we had been losing sleep over.

I've been a fan for years. So when I got to sit down with her, I asked her every question I've had since I gave birth.

We got into the breastfeeding thing. The part where she'll tell you formula is fine, and she'll also tell you she breastfed her own daughter and worked too hard at it because the pressure got to her too. We got into sleep training, and why a lot of the loudest voices yelling about it online happen to have a sleep course to sell. We got into the fact that one woman alone in a house with a newborn was never how this was supposed to work, and yet that's somehow the standard we're all being measured against.

She also has a new book out called The Unexpected, about pregnancy after complications, which I have a lot of feelings about because that was my pregnancy too.

If you've been quietly carrying guilt about how the early days went, or you're about to be in the early days, this one is for you.

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