Dear Michelle and all,

Thank you for posting the content of the NY law!  I was one who saw
gobble-dee-gook and appreciate the chance to read the text.  However, I am
sorry that the NY law (which is otherwise so wonderful) prefaces itself
with the comments that bf is recommended from birth to one year of age.
Yes, that's what the SG said and it does lend some weight to the law.
However, mothers nursing older children often feel less able to nurse in
public than those nursing children under the age of one.  Not only do they
have to deal with the social issues of decency but also those of bf being
sexual/abuse.  This lends an aspect of fear (will my child be taken away?)
to the already loaded issues of convenience/cleanliness/segregation etc.
It is a shame that so strong a law implies (and it is not stated but is
implied through the preface) that bf is only important through the first
year.  This implies that if you go longer there is "something else going
on" and plays into the hands of those feeling that bfing older children is
deviant.  Since Liz B. is back on Lactnet I hope she'll write in and say
I'm all wet behind the ears and the law won't be interpreted in this way.
But I'm not holding my breath....

Linda V.
outside of Philadelphia