Hi All, The views expressed so far re: this subject are all valid and do not warrant rebuttal. From what I've seen, Pam is right: *some* mothers do present themselves as self-centered/selfish and appear to choose to bottlefeed, despite all reason/instinct otherwise, because they believe it's the easier/convenient/ way to feed. Then, like Mary points out, there are many moms who are bottlefeeding with the selfless, caring attitude of any of the "top" breastfeeders among us. :-) Certainly, the HCPs and media/advertising/corporations are a huge factor in answering Mary's WHY "an otherwise intelligent, clear thinking woman chooses to feed her infant in a way that poses real health risks to herself and her baby." But I see that the answer to this WHY is really much deeper and much more fundamental. Many women (and men for that matter) have strayed far from their true nature: they don't listen to what their instincts tell them; they ignore their gut feelings; they don't follow their heart; they place far too much reliance on what they think rather than what they feel; they don't listen to their bodies' messages; and they don't trust their bodies. In short, moms aren't breastfeeding because they can't access their natural wisdom that would naturally guide them in that direction. When a mom is in touch with and trusts her body and its needs/desires, no amount of HCP misinformation or formula advertising or people's stares will make an iota of difference: breastfeeding she will do. The whole penchant for medicalized births is part of this same problem. Sure, this situation of disconnect has arisen, in part, because of our (U.S.) culture of capitalism/media/consumerism, but, again, the real problem is much deeper. And a solution, I believe, is a more fundamental action than just changing advertising and HCP's messages. To a great degree, I see that to get moms to breastfeed, one first has to help mom trust her body's wisdom. ~Dianne Oliver, LLLL, IBCLC Simi - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Holistic Lactation 805-582-2058 www.holisticlactation.com *********************************************** 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