Ok, I have now read LB's book "At the Breast" -- has anyone else? I would be interested in corresponding and hearing your opinion. My guess is that US people might have opinions on her analysis of LLL in the US. I found some of what she had to say of real interest. Some of her conclusions on working class culture have similarities to the findings of Hoddinott in her work with women in London's East End. This is also the first qualitative work I have seen (though I would not be surprised to learn that there is more) on black american women. At one point in the book she says something like 'Breastfeeding was, for me, the most deeply ambivilent thing I have ever done'. (This was in response to a question from one of her interviewees as to why she was doing the research.) It struck me that a lot of the sociological type research on bf is done by those with these feelings (and I have to credit her with her insight and honesty on including it) -- e.g. Pam Carter, IMO. I have lots of ambivilent feelings about breastfeeding practices in terms of promotion and strategies by health workeers and lay organisations and governments, but I feel much more unequivocally positive about bf and I wonder at the strange situation we are in where so much of the qualitative work is being done from ouside the 'community' of those who really understand and value breastfeeding in an embodied way. Hoddinott, who writes very interestingly of the way her own ideas shifted as she did her research, does not have children, BTW. Magda Sachs Breastfeeding Supporter, BfN, UK *********************************************** 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