> As a nurse, I inserted catheters into a variety of orifices, both male
>and female. Never an issue. I worked on a genitourinary ward in a VA
>hospital; all men. Never an issue.
>     So what's the difference?

The difference, I think, is whether we're talking about the medicalization
or the culturalization of breastfeeding.

This is a good place for Kathy D to inform, but my guess is that men have
had virtually *no* place in birth or breastfeeding, traditionally.  And that
the Wise Woman who helped with either one *almost always* had personal
experience as a starting point.  Wouldn't a woman of 5,000 years ago laugh
herself silly to see breastfeeding "expertise" being offered by young males?
Or by women who have never seen a 4 year old nurse?

I can't help but think that men in bfing is a medical experience, not a
cultural one.  For the moment, we need all the help we can get, wherever we
can get it.  But I hope the *direction* we're headed is toward women owning
both experiences again, wresting the knowledge base away from the hospitals
and the doctors, and relying on medicine only for those rare times when
cultural knowledge isn't enough.  If I see increasing numbers of male
breastfeeding helpers, I'll worry that breastfeeding is finding a stronger
and stronger niche as a medical subspecialty, and a weaker and weaker niche
as a non-medical body of knowledge shared among women.

--
Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY
www.wiessinger.baka.com

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