I used the word nurse with my first child, or milk, as in 'would you like to
nurse' or 'would you like some milk'.  I finished nursing school when she
was a year old, and started working nearly full time when she was nineteen
months.  It was a day job and she was in day care, and my milk continued to
be the main beverage in her diet for another couple of years.  She didn't
ever take bottles so she breastfed when we were together and drank other
things with whatever she ate when we were apart.  
I still remember her moment of surprised realization that when I said I
worked in nursing, it didn't mean that I spent all day away from her,
breastfeeding someone else.  This was what she thought I did when I went to
work, and she never seemed to find it the least bit odd, nor did it bother
her at all.  Can't remember how it came about now, but it did make me
reconsider the use of the word nursing for mothers whose area of
professional activity is also nursing, at least when interacting with people
like my three year old, who don't know about multiple meanings of the same
word.

In Norwegian we have two words for breastfeeding that only mean
breastfeeding; one describes what the baby does, and one describes what the
mother does, analogous to 'mother nurses baby' and 'baby suckles mother'.
I'd like it if one word covered them both, because breastfeeding is SO not a
lonesome activity.  

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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