Carol,
I have been worried about the population explosion since I was a kid---and in
my lifetime it has DEFINITELY exploded!  But here's how I reconcile those
concerns with my passion for breastfeeding:
I look at the issue of whether a woman should bear a baby separately from the
issue of whether she should have support for breastfeeding.  The social and
cultural and religious and economic influences on whether to bring children
into the world are indeed complex, and as a breastfeeding advocate I prefer
to stay out of that fray.  But once the child is here, there's no question in
my mind.  It deserves the best we humans can give it, and that includes
breastfeeding from a mother who gets whatever support and care SHE needs in
order to breastfeed.

I am a little leery of asserting too loudly that the baby actually has a
right to breastfeed, because that sets up a situation of potentially
conflicting rights---the baby's right versus the mother's right. I feel on
firmer ground talking about the woman's right to breastfeed, to make an
informed and supported choice. The conditions that enable women to breastfeed
provide many things that women need anyway, whether or not they are mothers,
like equal pay for work of equal value, adequate nutrition for themselves,
family and community support in their lives, etc.

Chris Mulford
Swarthmore  PA  USA

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