I have a small collection of medical texts from right about a century ago, which I think give some insight into the question of how infant feeding came to be seen as solely the mother's right, with the rights of the babies not considered. In more than one of my books, there is discussion about when the mother should or should not be "permitted" to breastfeed. Then, of course, were several decades where the medical profession effectively took the choice away from mothers, with incorrect advice and hospital policies that sabotaged. I think the current feeling that choices of breast or bottle belong to the mother is, at least in part, an offshoot of that. I, for one, have a very hard time understanding how anyone who has even a basic understanding of the topic, and really has her baby's best interest at heart, would forego the opportunity of breastfeeding, in favor of bottles. I believe that most moms who choose bottlefeeding from the start are lacking some piece of information, or have some kind of personal issue, that is getting in their way. For example, I have known several women who could not stand the thought of breastfeeding, because of previous sexual abuse that involved their breasts. However, I also know several with histories of sexual abuse who went ahead and tried to breastfeed, despite their discomfort, and found that nursing their babies actually gave them a sense of regaining the control over their bodies that their abusers had robbed them of. For that matter, many of us adoptive mothers find that nursing our babies helps restore some of the sense of control that infertility takes away. We lose total control over our babies' prenatal lives (and often a significant amount of their lives after birth), but we can nurture, and at least partly feed, our babies in the way we feel is best. Darillyn Starr Adoptive mom of six _________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html