Does not mention if she herself has breastfed.
Judy Ritchie

http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/letters/story/5835361p-5196104c.html

Unfair pressure being placed on new moms 

KATY ERICKSON; Tacoma
Published: June 18th, 2006 01:00 AM   
 
Re: “Breast-feed or else, public health campaign says” (TNT, 6-13). 
While I can see the benefits of breast-feeding and also support the early effort
of every new mom to breast-feed her newborn, it is shocking that lawmakers are
considering putting warning labels on infant formula to deter moms away from
bottle-feeding.

As a neonatal intensive care nurse, new mom and well-informed researcher on
parenting topics, I find it appalling that instead of focusing our energy and
money on education and programs to help support new moms who are trying to
breast-feed, we are using scare tactics that are blown completely out of
proportion. 

New moms who are unable to breast-feed are made to feel inadequate by the books,
billboards and political stigma surrounding the topic. The pressure to
breast-feed now is so overwhelming that new moms are becoming depressed
thinking they are harming their children if they fail. Many exclusively
breast-feeding moms are so afraid to supplement their children with formula
because of its bad reputation that their children’s growth and health is
sometimes being compromised. 

What about the millions of adopted children in our country who are bottle-fed or
all the women who cannot breast-feed for medical reasons? Are these mothers
doing their children irreparable harm? Absolutely not.

Let me remind lawmakers that treating postpartum depression in women who will
fail to breast-feed is far more costly and damaging to children and their
families than a bottle of formula. Putting such high expectations on new moms
will create a bigger public health problem than the one we currently have. 

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

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