Here, we can say the b word or pretty much any one of the vernacular terms for breasts, no matter how vulgar they may sound in the original or in translation.  They are just not loaded.  Certainly makes life easier.

This weekend there was a portrait piece in my local paper's weekend magazine about the new national arbitrator for labor conflicts.  The new appointee is the first woman to hold the position, and it's the latest in a long string of things she was the first or only woman to be involved in.  She was Minister of Justice in the early 1990's, and before that she was on the board that reviewed currency value, when she was involved in a major devaluation of the krone, the biggest of the 20th century. In the article it said that her daughter was still exclusively breastfed (this was in 1986, when maternity leave was 20 or 22 weeks) so she'd taken the baby to the meeting.  Breastfeeding went fine, but 'when there was an explosion in the baby's diaper, she found it hard to concentrate on the issue under discussion'.  I'm guessing pretty much all the men in the room knew what the sound was and weren't bothered by it either.

Things are NOT improving, however.  The coming week is when Europe observes World Breastfeeding Week, and the major commercial TV network here did a big sensational story about how there is a gigantic increase among newborns, in readmission to hospital for dehydration because they are starving at the breast.  The 'gigantic' increase is a doubling since the year 2000, when the rate was one readmission for dehydration per 2000 live births, to one baby per 1000 live births - and the online discussion is shocking, just shocking - 'the health services' breastfeeding hysteria is placing thousands of babies' lives in danger', wrote one supposed mother.  Since there are 60 000 births per year in the whole country, we are talking about 60 kids every year - no excuse even for that, but it's hardly 'thousands'.
If the network were interested in this for its news value, they might have run the story when it was (kind of) news, months ago when the story hit in the UK.  I'm convinced that some representative for formula manufacturers has planted it right now, just in case we were going to get some positive coverage about breastfeeding for a change.

And last week, the consumer show on the public network did a big scary piece about bisphenol-A in feeding bottles.  It's not regulated here because the authorities checked and decided the amounts ingested by a bottle fed baby weren't worth bothering about (they are revising that stance now, since Denmark has banned bottles containing the stuff).  But I was, er, impressed, or something, to learn that half a million feeding bottles are sold in Norway every year. Yes, in the country where 40% of babies are supposedly exclusively breastfed up to the age when they could easily drink from a cup, and there are still only 60 000 births a year.  That means that the ones who do use bottles are buying 14 apiece.  ???
There was an interview from the home of a mother of a seven month old who was about to host her postpartum friends' group, saying how important it was to ban such bottles, because 'all parents want to do what's best for their children' - this, as she is shown mixing a bottle of formula for her kid, with no explanation whatsoever.

Arrrgghh.  I am not sure our BF stats are as good as claimed.  Would like to know how they are collected.
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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