Hi Heather,
What I was saying is that we fight against infant formula being seen as
simply an alternative to breastfeeding and similarly exclusive pumping
should not be presented as an alternative to breastfeeding, but rather, as
Stephanie so well put, as an alternative to feeding infant formula. I work
with a lot of women whose children do not ever breastfeed. I certainly
support them and do not ever judge. If you have a peak through the archives
you'll find numerous other times where I've spoken about the need to support
mums who are exclusively pumping.
I also don't go along with the idea of telling mothers what to do. I think
that giving them information and options so that they can make informed
choices is the way to go....with a mum who is considering not breastfeeding
(by choice not necessity) that would include giving her information on what
she and her baby would lose by not breastfeeding. This is something that
people with a history as lay breastfeeding counsellors do particularly well.
I think in some cases the desire not to breastfeed is motivated by a desire
not to get close to their baby and those mothers need breastfeeding more
than women who want to be close. I direct you to a paper of mine that talks
about the impact of breastfeeding on children who have a history of
relational trauma that makes them wish to keep distance from their mother. I
think that it is appropriate to extrapolate much of this information into
cases where mothers are wishing to maintain distance.
http://www.internationalbreastfeedingjournal.com/content/1/1/5

Karleen Gribble
Australia

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

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