Just chiming in to second Lara's post, about being aware of the context and whether it is pertinent to concentrate on the distinction between suckling a baby at the breast and feeding a baby on the mother's milk by way of expressing and feeding it in a container. 

In the current thread I have not felt that underlying attitude Lara mentioned, at least not strongly, but in previous discussions of EP mothers that tone has made me very uncomfortable - the 'how dare she say she is BREASTfeeding' tone.  We need to look at the context in which a woman makes her decisions and choices and we hardly EVER need to judge someone else or hang her out to dry in public.  We need least of all to judge women who are working at least twice as hard to feed their children themselves. 

Nikki's list of reasons why a mother might choose to express rather than breastfeed rang pretty true with me, and I am grateful to her for couching it in respectful terms.  Any woman who feels compelled to make her family happy by providing the nutritious milk for them to enjoy feeding to the baby is a woman who could use some serious empowerment therapy, IMO, and I don't feel any aggression toward her, nor any moral superiority over her, I just feel FOR her.

The issue of how pump companies' interests muddy the waters around what options are available to women is a separate one, and one in which I have no compunction about being judgmental.  Corporations are *not* people.   For now I will simply reiterate that while we do have an interest in there being safe, effective and affordable equipment for women who need to express their milk, we (and the women we strive to serve) certainly do not have an interest in maintaining an image of pump companies as warm fuzzy cuddly allies of women and of us as supporters of breastfeeding.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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