Jan, you described a situation where "sometimes the scale helps".

Yes, the scale helped this woman to overcome her anxiety, which was based on
information she had received about the "adequate" timing of a breastfeed.  What
happened here is that you used one system of measurement (weighing) to
counteract the harmful effects of another system of measurement (timing).

Living in a world where perceptions of breastfeeding (and lots of other things)
are already framed through  using systems of measurement, this is clearly often
a useful strategy (although it might not help someone whose baby doesn't
'measure up' on the scale -- and what would you use then?).  My query about test
weighing, which sparked  off the recent thread on this topic, comes from a
fundemental questioning of the value of framing our discourse about
breastfeeding in terms of measurement, rather than as a satisfying lived
experience for the woman and her baby.  I guess, in this case, weighing enabled
that satisfaction to happen.

Magda Sachs
Breastfeeding Network, UK