>If a mom has to use a bottle
occasionally in public and the ultimate end is that baby is mostly BF and
occasionally Bot fed, then what is best? And maybe as she gets more
comfortable with BF she will learn to nurse when she is out.  I guess I see
a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.<

I understand where you are coming from on this, Pat, but I think it depends
how you are looking at breastfeeding.  'Predominant' breastfeeding may be
the aspiration that many women will be striving for -- and many may not
acheive this.  But we are seeing research now that is telling us that there
are absolute health differences between exclusive breastfeeding and
predominant breastfeeding.  I think it is up to all of us in the
'breastfeeding support community' to start thinking of ways in which we can
give this information to all the allied health professionals who come into
contact with women over their breastfeeding, to women, to their families,
and to society at large.

How do we do this?  How do we start?  I am *not* saying we want to drive any
'mixed feeding' underground but if we don't start giving out the messages
learned in research about the different health outcomes of exclusive
breastfeeding (and push for more research to look at different health
outcomes in terms of an exclusively breastfed cohort) and also tell women
that it is possible to breastfeed exclusively (again, I don't mean 'everyone
can breastfeed exclusively with no problem', but making sure the info is
there so that women don't assume they HAVE to give water, the odd bottle,
some early tastes of solids, etc -- [perhaps it is most important for this
info to be out there for the women who are happily bf and under pressure
from family, friends or hps to introduce bits and pieces -- this info would
allow them some grounds of self defense].

We have to start thinking about this, debating this together, and talking
about it to others to develop ways of making it clear and including it as
part of the picture we paint about what breastfeeding is like, and what
options there are and what consequences we know about.  In a sense it is
like when bf people first started talking about the problems with
bovine-based breastmilk substitutes -- how do we give this info, while
retaining our connection to the realities women are experiencing, and
maintain the trust of those we seek to support?

Magda Sachs
Breastfeeding Supporter, BfN, UK

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