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Subject:
From:
Jean Geary <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 22 May 1999 09:39:42 -1200
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Buried towards the end of the Salon article is a paragraph which, IMHO, is
central to the issue, quoted below:-

      "Though it's standard practice in most European countries for nurses
or lactation specialists to pay free follow-up visits to new moms, few
American hospitals provide this service. There have been a smattering of
efforts to introduce legislation that would mandate insurance coverage for
such services, but they haven't gotten very far. A California assembly
member introduced a bill last year that would require insurance
to cover birthing classes, breast-feeding classes and post-birth visits
with a lactation consultant, but the measure didn't pass. Even more
problematic is the U.S. government's recommendation that women breast-feed
their newborns for one year, while failing to mandate comparable family
leave policy that enables them to do it. (Even with breast pumps, most
women find it a Herculean task to take a half-hour several times a day to
sit in a bathroom at the office, run an extension cord into the stall,
pump, then store their breast milk in the fridge next to their boss's
leftover Chinese food.) Still, the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services advises, "Breast milk
should not be withheld from any infant unless absolutely necessary." "

Women are being set up for failure.

Jean Geary
Fundraiser, INFACT Canada
http:///www.infactcanada.ca

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