Gloria, thanks for your comments on this issue, which also concerns me, greatly. I think, right now, we are still in the period where women are fighting to prove that they can hang in there with the men, after a long period of fighting to achieve the same opportunities to serve. As much as I would like to see it, I don't think the military, in general, is prepared to make distinctions at this point in time. In fact, it is felt by many that great concessions have already been made, by reducing the amount of time new mothers can be on unaccompanied duty (it was less than 50 years ago that my father was gone for 15 months at once, during peace time!). On one hand, having grown up just accepting that the Marine Corps and country came before family, and that the children of military men were also expected to make significant sacrifices, I probably have more patience with the military on this issue than most people would. On the other hand, I also have a special interest in the welfare of military children. Not being breastfed and, even moreso, not having mother around at all for an extended period, amount to major tragedies for a child. This is especially true for any child who is too young to understand why mother is leaving (which would be hard for any child, but one too young to understand why a parent is leaving experiences the separation as a death). I think, at this point in time, the best that can be done is for women who consider military careers to be encouraged to realistically consider the fact that it may mean being away from even young babies, and is very likely to interfere with breastfeeding. Of course, the mother's specific job in the military makes a difference. Also, women often have an idea of when they are likely to be called to serve in a situation where they may have to leave a child, and can try to plan their pregnancies around that. Unfortunately, with things as they are in the world, there are no guarantees, and anyone can be deployed on short notice. For that reason, I have known women who have just chosen to put off having children until they were out of the military. I am afraid that, at this point in time, I just don't know what the answer to this question is. I can see it from both the mothers/babies side and from the military's side. Most women whose husbands are active duty do not want to see their children's father serving more unaccompanied duty, because some woman in the same job is getting out of the same duty, because she has a baby. I know that there are other countries which have more baby/breastfeeding friendly policies. I don't if any of them is actually comparable enough to the situation here in the USA, to work here, but looking and what is done in other countries would certainly be interesting, and perhaps lead us to some kind of specific proposal that could be made. I am doing lots of rambling and not coming up with much here, but I would love to hear others' ideas. I know we have talked about this on Lactnet before, but it has been a while, I think. Aloha, Darillyn _________________________________________________________________ Is your computer infected with a virus? Find out with a FREE computer virus scan from McAfee. Take the FreeScan now! http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 *********************************************** 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