In a message dated 99-11-21 10:50:35 EST, you write: << By the way, the Wisconsin Association of Lactation Consultants, after much haggling a few years ago, adopted a "no-infant" policy at our conferences. It came up again last week at our bi-monthly meeting, and the same camps were arguing again. A "professional organization" vs. breastfeeding mothers'(who may also be "professional") attending with their infants. >> My mind is boggled and I am appalled that an association that must profess to promoting breastfeeding and lactation, apparently only promotes lactation. Professional women get pregnant and give birth. When we refuse to allow their infants to accompany them to professional meetings, we are forcing mother-health professionals to choose between their babies and gaining education that will help them provide better care to clients (who ironically are women breastfeeding infants). We are forcing mother-baby separation if they attend--a practice we know is associated with negative effects and decreased breastfeeding. While it seems reasonable to ask mature adult women to take noisy babies out of a presentation, we treat these mature adult women like children when we remove their right to choose their baby AND continuing education. ILCA has no such "no baby" policy. AWHONN voted several years ago in favor of attendance by participants with "babes in arms." Apparently, larger associations believe mature childbearing professionals have a right to both. Karen Kerkhoff Gromada, MSN, RN, IBCLC *********************************************** 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