I hope I won't offend many of you. I know that there is an important role to be played in getting breastfeeding off to a good start in hospitals. Nevertheless, when I first discovered that there was a profession that assisted mothers in breastfeeding, it never dawned on me that it would be dominated by health care practitioners. I have worked for over 20 years in international public health nutrition - and my first thought was that the profession would be dominated by public health nutritionists who work with infants and children throughout their nursing relationship. The time spent in a hospital is such a short period in that relationship. Once again, I'm surprised at the discussion of hospital gear that many of you are wearing. I spend most of my time running around on the New York subways and buses going to women's homes. It never dawned on me to wear anything medical. So, I feel sometimes like I come from an alien planet in this culture that is so very very medicalized. Susan Burger, PhD, MHS, IBCLC *********************************************** 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