Dear Friends,  
The article about nip was breast -I mean breath- taking!  I am still
mystified by people who liken nip to pap smears.  This is nothing short of
discrimination and needs to start being labeled thus.  It is not a matter of
personal preference.  It is an issue of value and what we value as a
society.  Following is my letter to the editor.

Jonna Spilbor wrote a very disturbing article about breastfeeding that I'd
like to respond to.  I write as a former nursing mother of 4 children,
soon-to-be grandmother of a nursing child, a nurse and a "lactivist".  I
have written, marched and argued in favor of a few causes in my life, but
none that I feel could so profoundly change the society as breastfeeding.
As a new mother, with no example for how to do this, I discovered to my
utter surprise what women have discovered for millennia when they put their
children to their breast to feed.  How indescribable is the bond, the love,
the .utter abandon to feeling for another person that this act engenders.
It is the launch pad for the baby's self-worth as they learn to know love,
unlimited and all-encompassing, first in the arms of this one person, their
mother.  It is an ingenious system, really.  A baby must eat, but all it
requires in the way of resources and equipment is the mother's own body, and
during the course of this built-in feeding system, so much about love and
life is communicated to the child.  We learn nothing so well as that which
we learn as a child and through repetition.  It should therefore surprise no
one that breastfeeding children learn the meaning of unconditional love.  To
say they learn it is a mischaracterization.  They experience it.  They live
it.  They grow in it.  They don't know any other way.  Children loved thus
learn to love others the same way.  This can only be a benefit to a society.
Thus, encouraging breastfeeding, for this and so many more reasons benefits
everyone.  As a health provider, it can be difficult to encourage someone to
do something, even if it is the best thing, which they must do 8-12 times
per day but which they must hide to do.  Likening it to having sex or a pap
smear is so insulting as to be disgusting.  How do you compare feeding and
nurturing a baby to having a health procedure?  I am baffled as to why
someone would be so affected by a breastfeeding baby.  Usually little to no
skin, nipple or otherwise, is revealed during the feeding, so then it is
just the knowledge of what is transpiring that is offensive.  To my mind,
this writer finds breastfeeding itself disgusting, not just seeing it occur
when indeed, there is usually not much to see.  What nursing mothers
experience is nothing short of discrimination.  We now have sensitivity
training for race, creed, gender and sexual preference.  It is high time we
have it for breastfeeding mothers!
Sincerely,
Marsha Glass

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Marsha Glass RN, BSN, IBCLC~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mothers have as powerful an influence over the welfare of future generations
as all other earthly causes combined.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~John S. C. Abbot~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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