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Tue, 8 Jul 2008 08:48:13 +0100 |
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Nikki asked: "This basic, life-supporting impulse collides into the
relatively recent need
for reimbursement. How can these 2 different roads be reconciled?"
As someone outside the USA it seems very obvious that the conflict is a
product of the political and economic system within which you operate. All
the 'need to be paid' and therefore the dependence on commercial interests
is because the state does not pay for breastfeeding help.
Here in the UK we have a (slowly disintegrating) system of socialised
medicine-- 60 years old this week and one of the finest acheivements of the
20th century in the UK (although the continent can knock spots off the
system in many ways these days). We have volunteers, and at least the group
I work for, is able to have a complete ban on working for commercial
interests, and a policy of carefully considering whether to speak at
sponosored events.
The people who are LCs here in the UK are mostly also health professionals,
employed by the National Health Service, whose skills with breastfeeding may
arise out of personal passion and be partly self-funded (study events, etc)
but who are basically able to be free of commercial influence. And long may
this last for us!!!!!!
As I am American and only left in my 20's the situation you all describe
still sounds vaguely understandable, but -- from the outside -- it is
completely bizarre. As long as you live in this situation, you will find
yourselves contortioning to square your circle.
I feel sympathy for you all at the individual level. However, aside from
the impatience at my fellow Americans collectively for their strange
customs, I do feel very angry at the way this way of thinking and
exploitation is exported worldwide, poisoning things for the rest of us.
I know many will bridle at this statement, but I make it to let you know how
really unsavoury this whole discussion has appeared from afar.
Magda Sachs
Breastfeeding Supporter, The Breastfeeding Network, UK
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