Janet , you beat me to the computer. I guess I shopped in Toronto a bit too
long and had a slightly further drive home. But I must agree with Janet. We
had a great time at the Infact conference day with Jack, the Kathys and
Betty Sterken. Jean Geary the somewhat silent partner at Infact really
deserves a huge hug and lots of applause for all the work she does in the
office and in making our day away from our clinics so wonderfully
recharging. Thanks Jean.

However Janet, the Hamilton breastfeeding in the hot tub issue didn't
really end on such a positive note. When I arrived howm to read the
Hamilton Spectator the head line was "City does a flip-flop over pool
feeding flap". Nursing mothers will not be permitted to nurse their babies
in Hamilton public hot tubs or pools. Instead they will be invited to make
use of nearby deck chairs. Our line in the sand they say, is the care and
comfort of all our patrons. We seek to strike a balance and this policy is
in defernce to the wishes of all our patrons. However on the positive side,
they did not ask her to hide in a washroom or some other solitary place, to
nurse. The inside cartoon of the day was also quite positive. It had a
rather huge hairy, tummy hanging over skimpy bathing suited male patron
saying to a breastfeeding mother that this is not allowed here, while more
very scantily clad not so good looking female patrons, one who was smoking,
looking on. It was great for a chuckle.

However after listening to Katherine D. speak I started really reflecting
on where society has gone in devaluating the reason for the female breast
and lost in this shuffle is our femaninity and motherhood. After reading
the many letters to the editor for the past week, pro and con, for public
breastfeeding I think that overtly trying to publically breastfeed in
places you really would not feed your baby other foods or bottles, is also
not helping the cause of presenting breastfeeding as the norm. It may be
that the public is not ready but it is more than that. We should not be
using breastfeeding to set up a power struggle. It does nothing for the
naturalness and nurturing of motherhood and breastfeeding. It only causes
people to respond to breastfeeding in a very negative way as was noted by
the public response in the paper, even though I felt that news reporters
were generally very positive about the importance of breastfeeding.

My ramblings are not as suscint as many others on Lactnet but I hope you
understand where I'm going with this. We are in a bottlefeeding culture and
maybe another approach would be more positive. We saw many slides yesterday
of women breastfeeding in public, in other cultures. They were feeding to
nurture and give nutrition to their children. It was not done as a public
display because it is just done as a matter of necessity and fact. We need
to change laws and work through the government to really support the WHO
code. We should be looking for sponsership for public advertizing to
promote breastfeeding in the way that God intended it to be so that we are
presented as whole women not sexual objects, when we breastfeed. A tall
order but is it impossible?

Attie Sandink RN. IBCLC. Burlington, Ontario (Not south of the border in
Vermont Kathleen)
I apologize for the length of this note