Elaine wrote, " No matter how you slice it, it's true that not all women will bf or continue to bf as long as we like. I think that once they have made an INFORMED decision not to bf or to stop bf, they OFTEN already KNOW that breast is best. I think these moms often need support from us for whatever feeding decision they have made. I firmly believe that all moms truly want what is best for their babies. Moms need us for all kinds of emotional support." Elaine, I think what you wrote, above, is a pretty much accepted way of looking at whether a mother breastfeeds, or doesn't. But I'm very interested in the perception that it *is* accepted and OK and normal. I think you've put your finger on a very important aspect. This is all about women, and what they will do or not do, and about mothers' needs for support for their decisions, and about our obligations to provide that support. It all sounds good. Until we realize that the purpose of a mother making an informed decision about whether to bf or not is not really about the *mother* at all, it is about what is best for the *baby*. Lately I keep seeing a similar way of presenting infant feeding decisions in all sorts of writings and documents. Consistently the wording is about the mother deciding what to do, and about her apparent freedom to decide. But nowhere in the human rights documents can I find anything suggesting that babies should not be breastfed on the basis of a mother choosing not to. On the contrary, the wording is clear - that in all things the best interests of the child should be served, that the child has the right to the highest attainable standard of health, and that breastfeeding will achieve this. Does anyone know how the mother's freedom of choice not to breastfeed became so integrated into our whole culture that now it is believed to be a legal *right*? And is it written anywhere that we as LCs have an obligation to support a mother in a feeding method which we know will lead to health risks for her baby? Please understand that I'm not talking about individual mothers who find themselves in situations where breastfeeding is not possible (medical, social, psychological) - I'm talking about the ordinary mom who just prefers not to breastfeed. And about whole groups of babies generally. What are our obligations to *the baby*? Pamela Morrison IBCLC Harare, Zimbabwe [log in to unmask] *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html