Everyone, 
I have appreciated the discussion to lactnet and to me personally about my comments on the WIC article. Many good comments! I want to clarify that I respect all those who work with WIC. I have worked with WIC here in NM for 10 years. The nutritionists from all over the state are the hardest working most dedicated professionals I have ever worked with...and the most pleasant. Our breastfeeding coordinator and our director are totally dedicated to helping mothers breastfeed and have increased our initiation rates and duration among WIC women. And, I understand and have seen many of the situations you have noted that women experience that make breastfeeding more difficult. I don't know what the answer is. It is never simple or black and white. I remember feeling very smug one day because I had gotten the OB management at the hospital where I worked to get rid of all formula company pamphlets and formula samples. I was boasting about this to a friend of mine in the maternal-child field(she had started a school of nursing in Haiti) She said in a lovely french accent, "Oh, we accept all the formula we can get. We give it to the mothers and tell them that it is "special" milk for the mothers to make breastmilk. Most of these women had very little to eat. It made me think. On the other hand, I still believe that giving free formula gives a wrong message. There has to be a solution...if we could look outside the box..... 

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