>Hi Pam,
>I agree with what you're saying. My point in being careful about 
>language is not to obscure the truth but to maximise the chances 
>that the listener will actually hear what is intended.


Absoutely - we can be honest, factual, scientific, and it's essential 
that we are,  otherwise the honesty, the facts and the science of the 
debate get forgotten in arguments ahout whether we are being 
'ideological' and 'emotional'....and we end up defending our language 
and not breastfeeding!

I see and hear this all the time - literally, every day. I follow 
mothers' forums on the internet, and Twitter and facebook,  and in 
addition to this there is an ongoing debate in the UK media about 
whether NCT (my own organisation for which I work and volunteer) and 
other agencies 'make mothers feel guilty' because of their 
breastfeeding advocacy.  Someone defending breastfeeding will make an 
unfortunate analogy - maybe suggesting that mothers who choose to 
formula feed are making a decision akin to driving without strappng 
their babies into car seats - and the ensuing storm of bitterness 
(far, far more poisonous than the original analogy) stops people 
hearing the honest, factual science.  Mothers get most of their 
information about infant care and infant feeding from the web these 
days, and social media is enormously influential.

>To be honest, the woman responding to my article is intent on seeing 
>what she wants to see (even to the point of misrepresenting results 
>of studies that she chose to use in her argument- quite astounding 
>really)


Indeed . Your article - scientific, honest, factual, and advocating 
for women's informed choice - was still something that presses your 
respndent's buttons. Many sensible, educated people have a deep 
emtional response to infant feeding topics (why would they not? It's 
human to care about babies!) and a deep sensitivity to any suggestion 
that as a culture, we may have got this whole thing wrong.

It's nothing to do with being tactful, or politically correct, or 
polite (though I think in personal dealings with mothers, of course 
we should be kind and understanding, and recognise that individual 
mothers do take all this stuff personally and as a judgment). It's do 
with being effective, and having a voice that is listened to.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK
-- 

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