Hi, Folks. After reviving a dead modem and re-activating as a Lactnet member
on August 25, I am KEEPING UP WITH LACTNET…at least, I am so far.  I’ve made
myself a rule: for each current digest I read, I have to read and process one
of the hundreds of digests that are stored unread from my lurking days when I
was working and only had time to download.  I look forward to being a more
active participant in Lactnet. Unemployment does have its compensations.

An introduction for those who don’t know me: I am a La Leche Leader on
reserve, an RN, BSN, IBCLC, former coordinator of a hospital breastfeeding
center (hospital downsized and closed the center as of June 23, 1996), now a
free-lance lactation consultant looking about me to decide what’s next in my
checkered career.  Also I am recently retired from the ILCA Board of
Directors (secretary) and wishing success to Kathy Swift, the stalwart soul
who has taken on that job, and to all the current Board.  Also I am part of
the Pennsylvania Coalition on Breastfeeding.  Also, and most important, I am
still married (since 1963) to George, who knows too much about computers to
help me with my little Net problems, and mother of daughter Zoe (born 1968)
and son Toby (born 1978), who both taught me a lot about breastfeeding before
they could even talk!

 My understanding of "how sea mammals do it" is this:
1)  Sea mammals need streamlined bodies to cut down on resistance as they
swim.  So…
2)  Their nipples are found inside sort of "pockets," and either the nipple
sticks out when the baby nurses or the baby reaches into the pocket to find
the nipple.
3)  The baby is nursing under water, thus has to hold its breath.  We know
that sea mammals can hold their breath for a long time, but I don’t know how
long a baby sea mammal can.  So…
4)  The milk is forcibly ejected by a vigorous milk ejection reflex.

Isn’t Mother Nature smart?

Sea mammals have very high-fat milk.  Do you suppose that vigorous MER has
anything to do with keeping the fat content high?

Note to Linda Smith:

The T-shirt you should be wearing today is one no one has designed yet: a
picture of lots of mammals…bats, whales, primates, kitty-cats…you get the
idea…with a human mother and baby and the legend "I’m a mammal and proud of
it!"  They could make little shirts for babies, too.

Note to Kathy Auerbach:

Your story about the toddler using a nipple shield as a pacifier is a lesson
for us all. Maybe LCs need to get this word out as a public health measure,
just as pediatricians have had to speak out regarding pacifiers that pull
apart.  Scary!

One of my clients used a nipple shield for years---baby wouldn’t learn to
latch on without it when I worked with them at one month, so the mom decided
just to let him go on nursing with the shield, since he was gaining well.  At
age four (years) he finally began nursing without the shield, but he still
liked to have a couple of shields to hold in his hands while falling asleep.
 He called them his "nursies."  I never thought to ask whether he put them
into his mouth.  Scary again!

Note to Barb Cole:

It was the LCs from South Jersey who had the guardian angel T-shirts. I’ll
send their names and phone numbers by private e-mail.

Hey, I can even close with a pithy quote.  (This is a custom of Lactnet that
I really enjoy.)  This one is timely, since it is political convention and
campaign season in the USA.

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving in words
evidence of the fact.
---George Eliot  (who we all know was really a WOMAN!)