I just signed on Lactnet after a year's absence and find that the project I
work on "Loving Support" is one of the subjects of the very first digest that
I receive-how about that???  The research that Best Start did was indeed with
WIC clients in 10 states in the US.  We found that the main issues, not the
only issues, but the main issues that women have that keep them from
breastfeeding are embarrassment, fitting it into their busy lifestyle, and
lack of support from family, friends and the community.  These were not the
only barriers to breastfeeding but the ones that kept coming up over and over
again all over the country.  The good news we found out with this research is
that our WIC clients know that breastfeeding is the best method of feeding
their babies.  They know the health benefits both for themselves and their
infants.  However these barriers are still so great that they cannot
successfully manage to feed their babies the way they want to.  This shows me
that our "job" now is to make it feasible for women to do this in their
communities.  We have a great deal of work yet to do.  Starting with our own
support of these women.  One of the recurrent themes in the research was that
the women did not have adequate support in the first weeks after delivery.
They couldn't get the help they needed to get over those rough spots.

It's good to be back!  Linda Inglis, IBCLC, Best Start