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Subject:
From:
Janice Reynolds <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 27 Dec 2004 00:05:30 -0600
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Here's the Dec 26 "Ask Amy" (replaced Ann Landers) column on breastfeeding.  She's addressed breastfeeding in public before (not strongly in support) and has been educated by many of us  - seems she was listening!  Read it to the end - its like a Christmas gift to us!

Here's a link to her column,
http://www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?custid=67&catid=1843
(I post the pertinent letter below, in case it disappears off the site).
To contact, email [log in to unmask]
(Obviously her nreastfeeding rate statistics are wrong, I imagine many would like to correct her)

Janice Reynolds
Canada


"DEAR AMY: You have run some letters from people commenting on breast-feeding and how some breast-feeders lack discretion. 

I agree wholeheartedly. 

I work in a small community hospital in the maternity and newborn area. Rooms are designed with window blinds, curtains and doors for the privacy of all. Often mothers don't close these while breast-feeding, and any unsuspecting soul who might walk in can get an eyeful. 

Just because the woman "doesn't mind" someone seeing her topless, doesn't mean anyone would like to look. How would she like her husband or teenage son to walk past and see full frontal? Flash people like that on the street, and you would get arrested. 

As for the old and tired excuse that it is "nature's way" to breast-feed, so are other bodily functions, but you wouldn't necessarily perform them in front of strangers. How about a little privacy for everyone? 

Cover up! We know you're a good mother without the "peep show." 
-Seen it All and Then Some 

DEAR "SEEN IT ALL": It's official. I have now heard everything. You're criticizing women for breast-feeding their babies-in a maternity ward? 

I'll venture a guess that men and boys who are visiting women on maternity wards and see women breast-feeding might get a proper education about what mothers do to feed their babies. I'll venture another guess that no man or child has ever been traumatized by such a sight. It's only a "peep show" if you make it one. 

From the mountain of mail I have received on this topic, one would think that there is some sort of epidemic of public breast-feeding; and yet, because a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that only 14 percent of American women nurse their children, I'm wondering where these women are congregating. I can't remember the last time that I saw a woman nursing her baby in public. 

Hmmm. Maybe I just don't notice. Maybe you shouldn't either."

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