First, I guess I better reintroduce myself.  I have been on no mail since
the spring but now that school, church school and Girl Scout are over I
finally have time to give in to this obsession called Lactnet!  I am a LLL
Leader in Virginia Beach.  I am the mother of three girls, Samantha 9 (not
breastfed due to nipple confusion and the lack of knowledgeable people),
Allison 5 (breastfed 26 months), and Laura 3 1/2 (still having the
occaisonal "na na" before bed).  I have been married to a wonderful career
Navy man for 11 years.  I am planning on taking the IBCLC exam when my
youngest is in school and going into private practice when we get to move
back home to Florida someday.

Jay's post about needing information about Nestle and the boycott certainly
hit home to me.  Several months ago I spoke to a mother-to-be who was in her
early forties, pregnant for the first time and had a boyfriend who was
supportive one minute and gone the next.  He refused to be at the delivery
and she had no one to attend the birth with her.  We had a long talk about
breastfeeding basics and I arranged to get her a birth doula.  She called me
on Saturday (baby is 3 wks old)  with some questions, one of which was a
concern about the number of poopy diapers the baby was having.  Her
boyfriend grabbed the phone from her (his words were very slurred so I think
he may have been drunk)  and started verbally abusing me.  He accussed me of
being "full of shit" and that all the baby needs to "shit" is water.  He
claims he doesn't trust breastmilk and that women's breastmilk is what kills
all the babies in the third world.  He said his girlfriend is "weak" and she
will pass that on to his son through her breastmilk.  This irrational
conversation when on for several minutes with me trying to calmly counter
his misinformation, and him demanding to know what gave me the right to help
women breastfeed.   When he started yelling at me and demanding to know what
religion I was, I hung up.  I was very angry and upset.  This is the kind of
breastfeeding support this woman is faced with.

Anyway, I know this is an extreme case but I really feel that there are some
people out there who will never get it no matter what anyone says or does.
I  think we need to let them go and help all the other women who welcome it.


Diane, LLLL