I'm not sure if the custom around here is "law" or just "custom," but I generally have no problem getting 6 weeks off for my teen patients after delivery. In IL, if you must miss 2 or more weeks of school you are entitled to home bound education, in which a teacher comes to the house. Often, they do nothing more than bring your homework back and forth, but they do provide a connection with the school and allow most young women to keep up with their class if they choose. As a physician, I have to sign a statement that the young lady in question may not attend school due to medical reasons, which I personally have no trouble doing. I have met physicians who wouldn't state that a mom needed more time off, though. On a personal note, I returned to high school 5 1/2 weeks after delivering my oldest son, in 1988. Getting "permission" to continue breastfeeding was quite a struggle. I went to a school with closed campus, so was not allowed to leave for lunch. My daycare provider was not allowed to bring him to me. At first, the principal decreed that I could only leave at lunch to nurse him if my parents picked me up (they worked an hour away, however.) Finally, the school nurse, who had nursed her childen, convinced him that I would be in physical pain and unable to concentrate if I wasn't allowed time to breastfeed. (I certainly didn't bother to explain to him about regulation of milk supply, and let him think this would be a permanent problem if I didn't go at lunch to nurse my son!) Although I was given permission to leave at lunch, I wasn't given any extra time other than the 22 minute lunch period. After I came late to physics multiple times, the teacher pulled me aside and asked what the problem was. When I explained, he told me his wife nursed their children until they were 2, and told me to just come to class 10 minutes late every day. I will always be grateful for those extra 10 minutes a day. In between classes in the morning, I usually pumped in the girls bathroom with one of those old cylinder style pumps, and put whatever milk I got in my backpack to give to the daycare provider at lunch. I also pumped one side in the morning as my son mostly took one side in the morning, and set my alarm to pump in the middle of the night to keep up with his needs. I always had a hard time keeping up with that old pump, and was lucky the baby rarely drank more than 6 ounces of expressed milk in a day. My daycare provider luckily treated my milk like liquid gold and was very protective of my nursing relationship. Anyway, I have always felt that breastfeeding when I was a teenager strongly contributed to the kind of mother I am. I try hard to support any teen moms I am able to come in contact with, but schools are not always very helpful and certainly don't view breastfeeding as a priority! Jennifer Tieman Family Physician Mom to 3, and new baby #4 expected 5/31/03 *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html