While there are many good things about this article,
the opener is disturbing:

"In his first openly defiant act, my 11-month-old son
recently  stopped breast-feeding without my
permission. At first the strike seemed  temporary, but
I've been trying to lure him back for three weeks.
He's  done.
 
In some ways, this sudden, albeit natural, rejection
made me feel  like a  failure. I'd planned to nurse
him every night after work as long as  possible,
hoping for an easy, intimate bond after a long day of
separation.  Instead, I attach myself to a mechanical
breast pump three times a day and we  feed him my milk
from a bottle."

I'm glad the writer calls the baby's separation from
the breast a "strike," but how many readers will
understand what a nursing strike is, or that it is not
"natural" for a baby to stop nursing at this age? 
Given how many consider the nipple to be a spigot at
the breast operating much as a kitchen faucet, how
many will connect daily separation/bottles & a daily
visit at the breast with the premature departure of an
11 mos old baby?

Too bad the writer did not offer two articles:  one
addressing a mother's heartache at weaning earlier
than she expected (maybe with input from experienced
LLLLs/IBCLCs; maybe the experience of other mothers,
employed or not), the other expounding the importance
of community support for breastfeeding.

I'm concerned whenever misinformation is reinforced by
someone who has every intention of advocating for
breastfeeding.  Clearly the writer knows it is
"natural" for her baby to receive his mother's milk at
this age, and she is working hard to continue offering
him his mother's milk.  How "natural" then is this
"rejection?"  Seems to me this was a missed
opportunity to go further in educating the public
about the ways of mothers and babies at the breast.

Susan Johnson MFA, IBCLC
Salt Lake City, Utah USA 

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