My public congratulations to Marsha Walker and the people at NABA and to all
the agencies (way to go WIC!)and individuals in California who  worked on
the policy initiatives to institutionalize top-down support for
breastfeeding. This push to get  bfg  viewed as a public health issue is
going to be the beginning of a really different way of life for us all.

With all the talk on using guilt to manipulate people into breastfeeding (a
la anti-smoking campaigns) one thing has been forgotten:  It was not until
government/public policy changed and took a position on smoking issues that
we began to see smoke-free environments. We can talk ourselves blue in the
face, but we are doomed to failure if every other institution has policies
which discourage bfg from the hospital where a woman delivers, to the
insurance company who won't pay for the LC consult, to the employer who
stonewalls about on-site pumping facities.

There is such a lot of work to do.  Some of it takes place in legislatures,
some in hospital rooms, some in WIC clinics, some during home visits, some
in BOD meetings.  But the heartening thing to me is that there is really
starting to be forward movement. I do hope that the tendency to fragment and
bicker due, sometimes, to sheer frustration, won't side-track us all from
continuing to hold on and do our VERY BEST AND MOST INTELLIGENT WORK.  We
haven't got time for dogmas and cults of personality.  We must be real
professionals, make all decisions based on our best clinical and ethical
assessments, and work toward the establishment of LCs as accepted members of
the health care community.

Barbara

Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
Private Practice, Austin, Texas
Owner, Lactnews On-Line Conference Page
http://moontower.com/bwc/lactnews.html