Seems a bit bizarre seeing that mothers in most cases will need to spend more time with their babies. After all, there are certain things like breastfeeding that only a mother can do.
I was home with my kid when he turned 1 until he was 1.5 using this system in Sweden. Being a guy, I didn't breastfeed him. Kid still appear functional.
It's ok, you have more than enough time to traumatize his childhood and early adulthood :-p
Yeah you don't want an object oriented kid.
Mother's can and do express milk to be fed to babies in bottles; the fact that a baby is on breastmilk doesn't require the mother to be with them 24/7, and formula is a thing that exists.
What other things are there?
The method of milk delivery is not as important as being with the baby.
For many reasons, a mother might not be willing or able to breastfeed her child or to do so exclusively, so you'd need additional feeding arrangements in those situations.
Even if the mother is breastfeeding, in practice she might appreciate being able to express some of her milk and have the father feed the baby sometimes.
Things could be much more even with early years childcare than they are in many places at the moment, and in my experience there are a lot of mothers and a lot of fathers who wish it were so.
What other things are mother-only things in your opinion?
Especially as my comment didn't even touch upon pro or contra breastfeeding but just stated a simple fact or reality.
And in those cases the mother needs extreme support. Like a father around to help her out with all the little things constantly and to give her a break.
It seems fairly bizarre that you think caring for a newborn is a 1 person job no problem!
I noticed when visiting the US that breastfeeding was not very normal. Like they don't even teach it in a standard hospital.
Finnish moms are getting longer maternity leave than most countries in the world with this system. If other countries can manage with their short maternity leaves, I am sure Finnish mothers can manage too.
I mean I agree with you in principle that moms are needed for longer time than dads, but too often such questions are raised in an a disingenuous fashion to push back against gender equality.
What we do in Norway is that moms get some extra time at work for things like pumping. I believe the first year you get something like 1-2 hours at work for breast feeding.
As a dad I was feeding my child milk which had been pumped earlier.
Not sure how you would notice that when visiting, but, yes, they do.
On the contrary, that was one of the first things they teach after giving birth (apart from diaper changing). They also stressed heavily on the importance of nursing and set us up with a lactation consultant if we needed help in the future.
Those months can be taken at any time in the first year and normally overlap the mother's parental leave, so the husband can help her and spend time with his baby.
That and half the benefit of breastfeeding comes from direct suckling. I will never understand dads who want to feed their kid so much that they make mom pump. Fathers have been close to their children for millennia before we decided in the last century that they need to feed their newborns too. Its okay if you and mom are not the same... Your baby certainly doesnt see you that way