Thank you for this, Gonneke, and Susan for responding with almost the exact thoughts I was having! You have distilled the previous messages and point out that we have a responsibility to help mothers look at the big picture. As Jack Newman states "There is more to breastfeeding than breastmilk" 

We do not live in a perfectly breastfeeding and safe world.. but we can provide information and support so women can make safe and relatively healthy long term decisions.

kind of on this topic - The first Human Relations Enrichment meeting I went to as a young LLL Leader was given by two long time Leaders who told us how they used to visit with each other, having a smoke at the kitchen island in their push up bras... babies playing at their feet.. I was incredulous at the time! I'm not sure what shocked me the most, being the crunchy granola type.. nursing mothers smoking or wearing push up bras - I plead rural-itis! 

Happy Holidays to Everyone!

Celina D, LLLL, IBCLC 

(who, jealously observing my breastfed husband enjoy such excellent health, would rather my mother had been able to nurse me even if she would have had a cigarette or a few drinks along the way:>)

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