>When I am demonstrating something to a Mom I constantly find myself
>grabbing hold of my breast and waving it around. Do the rest of you use
>those little cloth breasts...

I was going to respond to Anne privately, then thought this ought to be a
lactnet discussion.

As a lactating LLLLeader, I often used my bare breast (tho not around the
dads).  We'd compare bras or nipples or I'd demonstrate hand expression,
and I was shocked and offended when professional LCs said baring your own
breast was unprofessional.

Now that I'm a professional LC, I virtually never bare my own breast (I've
done so on rare occasions to reassure an insecure mom about nipple size),
mainly I think because I'm not lactating.  I'm probably a 36B, I never wear
a bra, I'm all the time "grabbing my breast" to demonstrate positioning, I
use water balloons and lipstick to demonstrate what makes a good latch, and
I sometimes use a "peelable" cloth breast to show sinus location, tho I
think the nipple/areola on them is peculiar-looking.

My vote would be for us to use our bare breast any time it seems
appropriate in our professional judgment, to handle our covered breast
freely, and to limit our use of fake breasts because (unless they're being
used to show something like internal anatomy) they do send a message that
*your* breasts are supposed to be bared many times a day, but *my* breasts
aren't to be touched.  I think being too stuffy about our own breasts can
contribute to our culture's problem with them.  Others?

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY