Boy, did Ilene's post about the HIV & BFing poster ever hit a nerve with me!
I know the poster she's describing, it's the same one we get in NY, and I
think it is the most depressing-looking poster I have ever seen associated
with BF'ing! My response to it, as our local WIC BF coordinator, was to
refuse to post it in our clinics and offices. (Being ever-thrifty, I did cut
it up and use the BFing images in other projects - they didn't look so grim
in a different context!)

Ilene, stick to your guns! One of the big gripes I have is that NY State
will issue as many of these posters as you would ever request to WIC clinics
(or public health clinics, or presumably school, etc.), for "free" (i.e.
paid for by the State Department of Health, no cost to local agency), yet
does not make available for "free" the USDA Loving Support for Breastfeeding
posters. New York was one of the 10 pilot states in the development of the
"Loving Support", yet local agencies can't afford to purchase these
materials. I think the Loving Support materials are terrific, but I know
that many, many agencies in our region cannot afford to buy them, or any
other "promo" materials at all.

Yes, it's important to discuss HIV and its possible means of transmission
during pregnancy/birth/infancy. But New York State recently required that
HIV as a contraindication to BF'ing be discussed AT THE FIRST WIC VISIT;
along with requiring documentation that it had been discussed and that 2
state-generated handouts be given when a woman first is certified on WIC.
That's BEFORE a pregnant woman even would talk with the nutrition staff or
the breastfeeding coordinator about infant feeding! I only wish the state
agencies would put the same amount of energy and emphasis into BFing
promo/support that they do to immunizattions, or smoking cessation, or any
of a dozen things not nearly as important. Looked like New York was headed
that way, back in 1994, but now here I am, out of a job, the only "victim"
of local budget cuts to our agency.

Cathy Bargar, shivering in her garret because she can't afford to turn the
heat above 60 F. (sob, sob...)