Hi fellow LACTNETTERS, I had to respond to the Good Morning America comment. I wanted to share what I had to say. It may be a bit long, but I felt I needed to share. Dear Sirs and Mesdames, Let me introduce myself. My name is Veronica Tingzon, and I am a Lactation Consultant and Lactation Educator in the San Diego area of California. I was reading about one of your shows last week that had incorporated a segment on readiness for emergency situations. I was baffled at what the lady said...she stated that a mom's milk dries up in times of stress. Totally untrue! As a lactation professional, and as someone who lived through one of the many landlsides in California this past winter, I knew that breastfeeding my baby was one of the only things that was going to get me through this situation. You see, the mere fact that I breastfed during these times of stress forced me to have to calm down when feeding my child. It was a therapeutic thing for me. It also made me confident that if I had to evacuate quickly (which I almost ended up having to do at one point, but thankfully, I didn't lose my home) I would have all I needed to feed my child in a quick get away. I, in a quick escape, would not have to be bogged down with bottles, formula, etc.... The one thing stress can do, however, is inhibit a mother's let-down or milk ejection reflex when pumping. (Pumping uses a completely different physiology than does breastfeeding.) But, tell me honestly, who wants to pump in a Red Cross tent city when just plain old breastfeeding the baby is so much more discreet and pleasant? Not to mention, it is the more sanitary thing to do since washing pump parts or mixing formula in an area where there is no clean or potable water can be potentially lethal to a baby. It makes me so sad that we still, after knowing all we do about the benefits of breastfeeding, in the media, portray nursing as some kind of disgusting or wrong thing to do. We take for granted that our bodies were designed a certain way and we were designed to survive. This is one of the survival features God gave us. I wish the media would get a little more educated so that the gross general public could be well informed as they look to you as a knowledgeable source of reference. Also, the American Academy of Pediatrics, The World Health Org., and UNICEF agree that breastfeeding is the best way to keep a baby healthily fed during times of disaster...it worked in Kosovo during the "war" and in Indonesia's Tsunami. My last point, you know how inflamed the breastfeeding community became at Barbara Walter's "little comment" on breastfeeding, why would ABC allow someone to make unsubstantiated remarks about breastfeeding again. It's irresponsible, in my opinion. I would love to go on air and tell everyone how great breastfeeding is and why every mom should do it in this circumstance, having personal experience and the educational knowledge to make my claim. Actually, I would love to share why every mom should breastfeed, period! Please hear the brestfeeding community's pleas. Please try to do right by our nation's babies and stop your people and guests from making irresponsible remark about breastfeeding. Thank you. Sincerely, Veronica B. Tingzon CLC, CLEC *********************************************** 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(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html