Pamela you wrote:
"Anyway, I am beginning to wonder if the
"right" of the mother about infant feeding choices, although so hotly
defended that it has become enshrined in written human rights law (written
by western experts) and subtly promoted by industry, is not so much a human
right as a recent cultural peculiarity."

The cultural peculiarity is the "liberation" of women from their biology.
Now, women have more control over whether or not they get pregnant. They can
decide on whether they want a boy or girl.  They can decide on whether to
breastfeed or not.  Funny, though we never talk about liberating men from
their biology!  We only talk about the need for women to be more like men, to
have a man's level of freedom.  Although one might debate how free men are
from their biology.  Particularly since surveys show that men think about sex
about every 3 minutes.

Biology does involve rights.  People have the right to have or not have
children.  They have the right to have or not have sex.  Therefore women
should have the right to breastfeed or not.  But women have to understand
that it really isn't about liberation from the demands of an infant.  What
has happened is that these powerful biological events are being ursurped by
men and women of science.  And it comes with a big price to pay in terms of
physical health for women and their children.  There is an emotional price to
pay.  I think the increase in postpartum depression is the result of women
having lost control of the way they give birth and the way in which we would
normally feed and comfort our babies.

We don't talk about the rights of men to have or not have sex.  Why should we
discuss breastfeeding in terms of rights?  It is a fact of life and women can
chose not to do it.  But they are truly missing something!! Women have
sacrificed their sexual souls.  I don't think we will ever see men
sacrificing their biology in order to be liberated.   Valerie W. McClain,
IBCLC

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