See how I got BF into this topic?  Barbara Wilson-Clay raises some good
points in her post, re:prenatal BF classes.  She notes: "Many of the men are
genuinely puzzled about whether they are going to be able to think of their
wives as sexual partners during lactation."

If you work in a labor ward in a typical US hospital and have never seen a
birth outside this context, please understand that I am talking about the
system you work in and not you personally.
I think it is a great idea to get expectant paents talking about how they
may feel about the practicalities of BF.  However, if a man can imagine
being able to think of his wife as a sexual partner after accompanying her
through labor and birth in a typical US hospital,  observing her in the
lithotomy position, possibly shorn of her pubic hair, her perineum at best
bulging and stretching to let the baby out, at worst cut/torn and sutured
back together after birth, with or without instrumental delivery, and
possibly with a bumper crop of fresh, grape-sized hemorrhoids as short-term
souvenirs, then whether or not she lactates afterwards should be of very
minor significance to her sex appeal.

I know women give birth with dignity in the US too.  But I fear it is not
the typical experience.
Rachel Myr
now writing as a European midwife
Norway

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