Theresa writes eloquently about the importance of support and 
education rather than telling people what to do....I think we'd all 
agree with that. But there is a contradiction here:

>  I also teach these moms that don't think they want to breastfeed
>or can breastfeed that colostrum is so precious and beneficial to their baby
>that if the only time the baby gets it is after delivery it is beneficial.

This is information sharing, and of course all mothers have the right 
to hear this information (and reject it if they wish, we know).

What about the information that the *experience* of breastfeeding - 
direct breastfeeding - is as essential and precious in its own way as 
the nutrients in the milk? Don't all mothers have a right to hear 
this information, too (and, equally, to reject it, if they wish) ?

Just as a mother who elects to use formula instead of breastfeeding 
for whatever reason has the right to do this, mothers have the right 
to use a pump to deliberately and consciously distance themselves 
from their babies.

However, while I genuinely support a mother's right to do with her 
body what she wishes (I make no judgements of her, though I can be 
open about the likely effects of this choice), I don't have to supply 
her with the formula to enact this choice. I don't have to supply her 
with the pump, either.



I don;t see the justification of supplying a pump being 'we have to 
help her make the best of whatever breastfeeding experience she 
wants' - I don't think that is a given, at all.  *She* can decide 
what experience she wants, but if this is a deliberate choice 
(un-triggered by the baby's needs), then why should breastfeeding 
supporters collude with that by enabling it?

I say this knowing that for some, supplying with a pump is an 
important part of people's income (and this does not apply to me) 
which makes any decision not to supply a pump a very different 
one....and I am fortunate, I suppose, in that I do not face this 
dilemma. I also belong to an organisation that gets a small amount of 
national income from renting out pumps (the majority to mothers who 
want very much to bf directly, though).  I am also in a country with 
free health care, and I think this makes a difference, too.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK

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