Diane W. wrote:
>   But what if we referred to breastfeeding as just "feeding", as opposed
>to "bottle-feeding"?  Lots of times people wouldn't get it.  We'd say
>something about feeding a baby and they'd picture bottles.  But it *would*
>normalize the behavior.  It's not that I'm squeamish about "breast"feeding,
>but it does seem to put the behavior in a
class "udderly" different from other mammals (who neither udderfeed nor
teatfeed).

Hi neighbour :)
As a transplanted Brit, when I first came to the US I found it quite odd
that people referred to breastfeeding as *nursing.* I asssumed it was
because there was a taboo against using the word *breast.* Even after being
here for over 25 years, I still find myself occaisionally uttering
Britishisms that are incomprehensible to the *natives,* but I gave up on the
idea of referring to breastfeeding simply as *feeding* a long time ago. I am
afraid that the number of blank stares I got in return eventually put me
off.

However...

If EVERYBODY started to talk about *feeding* the baby, I think that it might
eventually work. Please, don't hold your breath over this! Our local
newspaper still persists in printing *breast feeding* as two separate words,
and I have been working on them for a very long time!

Diane also wrote:
>Since having my own babies, I've thought one of the reasons there's so much
>pain medication in labor is that we simply don't have enough words for the
>sensations involved.  Our Lamaze instructor passed around a picture of a
>woman's face near birth, and the whole class went quiet.  Then she passed
>around a picture of Bruce Jenner's face as he was on the brink of winning
>the Olympic decathlon.  "Oh," we thought, "Same face!  So this labor thing
>we're seeing isn't agony; it's concentrated, determined work.  *This* we
>can do!"  Call it pain and it hurts, fail to call it pain and you're making
>too little of it.

Here is another comparison: the contortions on the face of a woman having an
orgasm are also remarkably similar to those of a woman about to give birth.
And despite the efforts of romance writers, has anyone ever really been able
to capture that experience in words?
Something to think about :)

Norma Ritter, IBCLC
Big Flats, NY
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