Nikki said, and I agree "Sure, it is very inconvenient if mothers stay home 
to mother. It takes a
lot of time. I have met many women for whom collecting their milk at work is
not an option that makes any sense for them; they are already working very 
very
hard: running the house, taking care of other children plus full time
employment. They are already exhausted from working outside the home during 
a
pregnancy. What and where is the incentive for her to work even harder to 
pump
and
collect her milk?
    Sick babies are considered normal, because they are so common. "Lots of
babies have ear infections."

I cannot imagine why so many people fail to put two and two together and 
realize that having a sick baby is infinitely more inconvenient than 
breastfeeding, whether they are home during the day or not!

This makes me think of the case of a friend of mine, who'd had a baby born 
at the same time I adopted Joseph.  The baby was her sixth child, but first 
son.  For the first three months or so, she'd breastfed exclusively and her 
son had been the picture of health.  I can still picture this mom bouncing 
her happy little brown eyed, brown haired, olive complected cherub on one 
leg, and my happy little nappy-haired, dark brown-skinned, black eyed cherub 
on the other, while I played the piano in church.  Unfortunately, she was 
feeling overwhelmed at home and decided she needed for her older children to 
be able to help feed the baby.  Her baby was not willing to take both 
bottles and the breast, and she weaned all together and put him on formula.  
Everything changed dramatically, after that.  Her son had severe diarrhea 
and vomiting that would not stop.  Instead of growing normally, like Joseph 
was, her boy was losing weight.  She was barely getting any sleep at all, 
and was scared to death that her son had some terminal illness that just 
hadn't been diagnosed.  Fortunately, he did get better, but not until after 
months of torture.

Fortunately, this mom saw the connection between weaning her son from the 
breast, and his horrible illness, and never inclined to wean a baby early, 
again.  The last time I saw her, she was holding her 8th child, a 20 pound 
four month old boy, who was totally breastfed.

Of course, it would not be considered PC to say anything to a mother to the 
effect that her choice of feeding was what caused her baby to be sick, which 
brings up another topic to discuss but, really, don't mothers have the RIGHT 
to know that choosing not to breast feed requires acceptance of a much 
greater rate of illness?

Darillyn

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