Thank you, Rachel and Katherine for your wise words about avoiding sweeping, judgmental claims 
about breastfeeding and the goodness of mothers.  Like Rachel, I have known some extraordinary 
parents of both genders who put me to shame, all of them without the benefit of having lactated.

I see a link between this thread and the one about the poster of the little girl breastfeeding her 
doll.  Someone mentioned that one person who found this poster hard to take had been abused as 
a girl.  The sad fact is that all too many children experience some sort of exploitation or abuse, 
and this makes me wonder if many of the other women who have strong responses to this poster 
are survivors of this sort of childhood.  

If so, it seems that rather than engaging in a power struggle over the poster, maybe engaging in 
an open, honest conversation about the poster would be better.  I am not criticizing anyone who 
has expressed frustration about their posters being torn down in recent LN posts.  If someone tore 
down a poster I put up, I would feel some rage. 

One of the pearls of wisdom I carry around with me from LN is Joanne Elder's statement that when 
she works with mothers, the only assumption she makes is that these mothers have low self-
esteem.  That is a bit sad and poignant, but I think it is a good strategy.  If I tell myself that most 
people's bad reactions and bad behavior are rooted in woundedness rather than smug superiority, 
it helps me treat them with compassion and respect, even if they have provoked me.

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html