<And finally, why do we need to distinguish between those who pump and
feed out of "necessity" and those who do so for "convenience?"  We can
never really know what goes on inside the woman who decides to
indirectly feed her milk. Rates of sexual abuse in this culture are high
and often involve the breast. Sometimes when a mom is adamant that she
won't put babe to breast for, what seems to me a flimsy reason, I step
back and ask "what has happened in her past?">

Thank you for putting it so well Susan. My final 20 years of employment
was devoted exclusively to prenatal care of low income women. Somewhere
along the line, we upgraded our history taking to include a thorough
assessment for past and present abuse.

After 3 decades of OB nursing prior to that, what I learned from these
assessments boggled my mind. I had never imagined the extent of the
forces impacting the lives of so many mothers who continue devotedly to
cope the best way(s) they know how. And experience tells us that this
phenomenon occurs across all  educational and socio-economic barriers.

Jean
************
K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC
Dayton, Ohio USA

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