There are an increasing number of adults who were breastfed as
preschoolers and are now in their late teens and twenties.  Many of these
young people are very high achieving.  They are genuinely nice balanced
people in addition to often being the star athlete and the scholarship
winner.  They are also fully grown, sometimes bearded, sometimes knock down
gorgeous and usually articulate.  Many I know have clear memories of
breastfeeding.  When I have approached the mothers of these children they
are unanimously enthusiastic about speaking up about their experiences.  No
one asks their opinions any more, and they have a store house of vivid,
pleasant memories, and a wealth of experience to share. This is the
population who should be utilized to defend extended breastfeeding.  No one
is going to remove from care a 24 year old honours physics student. In my
opinion these families are a wasted resource.
        I ALWAYS bring up extended breastfeeding in my prenatal classes.
Usually a question about 'how long' to breastfeed will come up, if it does I
use this as a natural opening.  If it does not I will ask the class what
their opinions are, and go from there. I work in small communities and in
virtually every class one couple has a neighbour, co-worker, or family
member who has chosen to breastfeed longer than 3 years. Often the whole
group knows of the family (small town gossip is amazing). Most times the
class expresses horror and one of the men will bring up the issue of sex
abuse. This makes for great discussions. The underlying message I try to
give is that how long you chose to breastfeed is a family decision, don't
judge those who make a different decision too harshly.  Extended
breastfeeding is natural, of benefit to the infant and perfectly normal even
if it isn't common in North America. I am not intimidated or made defensive
by this discussion (after all I have the research to back me up) and this is
a safe place to have it so I precipitate the topic.  I figure I teach these
classes to introduce the where, why fors and how tos and changing the social
climate to understand and accept REAL breastfeeding norms is part of that
mandate. As an added benefit it sure makes weaning at less than a year sound
premature and conservative ;)
--"Without interest and passion nothing great has ever happened in history.
Hegel"
               Rhoda Taylor, B.A., IBCLC   Duncan, B.C., Canada--