Was away at our affiliate meeting yesterday, but taped the show and
watched it last night.  I was very pleasantly surprised!  I think it was
the best "talk show" discussion of breastfeding I've seen in a long
time.  I cringed at the beginning when the host mentioned that "the
American Adadamy of Pediatrics recommends breastfeeding for a year".
However, one of the guests pointed out firmly the correct version of the
AAP statement "AT LEAST a year and continued as long as mom and baby
wish (or whatever the exact words were)".  Even the audience member who
firmly stated a year was long enough did speak positively about
breastfeeding in general.  I did chuckle when her reply to benefits
beyond a year was that it would be OK for mom to pump and give EBM for
many years.  In her case, that was probably a big shift in thinking-who
knows whether she might think more favorably about giving it "direct"
the more she thinks about it.  At one point he also brought up public
nursing and they showed a clip of a mom in the audience who put her baby
to breast and the gal sitting next to her turned away.  They asked the
one who turned away if it bothered her.  I was expecting some negative
comment, but she was very supportive of mom nursing, said she wan't
offended, just wanted to offer the mom a little more privacy/room.  The
greatest response was when a pregnant woman in the audience was asked
what she thought.  She replied that she did intend to nurse and was
surprised that one could nurse for several years and sounded like she
would be very open to doing so herself.  They did have one psychologist
who stated she felt by not weaning earlier the moms were preventing
their children from learning other wasy of coping.  However, the first
mom they interviewed was also a psychologist and she was nursing an
"older" child and spoke very positively about it.  The little girl who
had weaned herself at 6 1/2 years lookied very uncomfortable at being on
TV.  When asked what she thought she simply said she decided she didn't
want to do it anymore so she quit.

Overall, I felt the presentation gave the opportunity for a variety of
opinions, but that in general the theme was "this is possible and
there's really nothing wrong with it".  The host didn't seem to have any
particular "ax to grind" but approached it with an open mind, let
opinions on both "sides" be expressed, and didn't make anyone feel
defensive.  Oprah et al - take a lesson!

Winnie

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