Dear Wise Women: As I write this my sister-in-law is in labor having her first baby. She has so far been given 2 shots of Demerol and an epidural. When last we spoke she was 2+ and pushing. I will consider it a miracle if she avoids a C-section. Let's see how the breastfeeding goes... She will be asking me all her questions! On another note, one of the resident physicians that I work with just had a baby, and everything under the sun has gone wrong for her in regards to breastfeeding. The baby is now 2 1/2 months old and is still only nursing on one side, and she has just recently recovered from her 3rd mastitis! She was seen in the hospital by a lactation consultant who affirmed she was using proper positioning, nevertheless, she developed severely sore and cracked nipples to the point where there was blood in the baby's stool. When she sought help from LLL what she heard was basically "You don't get sore nipples unless you have improper positioning" That really turned her off to LLL because she really felt like she was doing everything right, was suffering greatly, and was kind of insulted. Anyway, she pumped and nursed and finally got the baby going on one breast, but when I talked to her today, she said she still had pus coming out of a crack in one breast. By the way, her husband is also a physician, and has been very helpful and supportive. We are joking at work because I have a 15 month old that I have been nursing on one side only since he was 10 months old. ( We both sheepishly admit our breastfeeding difficulties to each other, as we are both big breastfeeding advocates. Why we should feel that as health care providers we would be smarter than these problems, I'm not sure) If any of you are familiar with a wonderful Utah writer, Terry Tempest Williams, she has written a well known story called "The Clan of The One Breasted Women", which is really about her family's exposure to nuclear radition during above ground nuclear testing in the 50s, and refers to the fact that all of the female members of her family have had breast cancer and masectomies. We are calling ourselves part of a different clan of one breasted (nursing) women. What an adventure. Take Care Lacnetters, Jennifer Myers Coombs, PA-C mother to Thomas 15 months old and newly found to be pregnant 2 days ago!!