I periodically serve as an arbitrator, where three lawyers sit on a panel
and play judge, in order to resolve civil cases.  Before the case, when the
panel is making small talk, I am usually asked, "Where do you practice?"
You can imagine the fun I have, explaining that my private practice is as a
lactation consultant.

I sat on a panel yesterday.  When one of the other panel members heard my
story, she asked, "How long should a baby nurse?"  I gave her my pat answer:
I explained the AAP and WHO recommendations (for 1 and 2 years,
respectively), and suggested mom-and-babe should nurse "for as long as they
both want to."  She responded, matter-of-factly, "Hmm.  I nursed my daughter
for 4-1/2 years."

My eyebrows raised! We talked longer!  This is a mom who simply nursed her
baby "as long she seemed to need it."  She returned to work, part-time,
fairly soon after baby's birth.  She never used a support group or
counselor, though she did have friends who nursed their babies.

I never would have heard about this long-term nursing mom from my "lactation
channels."   As IBCLCs, we work so much with the problems/roadblocks that it
is easy to lose sight of the many unreported dyads who are happily BF as
though it were ... well ... the most natural thing in the world.  It put a
smile on my face.

Liz Brooks, JD, IBCLC
Wyndmoor, PA, USA

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