"It will take a huge societal shift for women to refuse to leave their babies. Returning to work is deemed "productive" in the States, not having or staying home with a baby." Nikki: Thanks for your comments on Lactnet on working women. I realize that this is a sensitive issue, as the US is forever criticized for it's NON baby/mother friendly policies. We DO need to work towards improving them, but living in the NOW and dealing with mom's current life is, in my estimation, my job. I have to help her to develop the very best system she can within the context of her life. I work with moms who are low income or on welfare.and who are expected to put more and more time into looking for and keeping jobs. These are NOT women "choosing" to work for the second car - they often don't have a FIRST car - and live in areas with very limited transportation. Some have to leave their little ones early in the AM and pick them up very late due to the lousy public transportation system (something else we need to fix). Their babies need mother's milk and the time at the breast she CAN offer them when they are home together.and my job is to make this possible. These women need inexpensive, effective, light, and often non-electric breast pumps, effective and safe feeding methods for their babies, supportive employers AND knowledgeable child care workers. There is a lot of work to do! We each pick our battles - those in which we feel we CAN make a difference.while at the same time encouraging and supporting others who have chosen other battles (such as longer family leave, stopping free formula distribution in hospitals, requiring adequate training in regards to breastfeeding of all health care professionals who deal with mothers and babies). I appreciate hearing what is being done in other countries as it gives us a goal to shoot for - at the same time I would appreciate some tolerance, understanding and appreciation of what OUR current situation is. Unfortunately the US sends out so many TV Shows, movies (and even news coverage) that there is the impression that our lives are like this - please realize that wherever these shows are filmed, the camera is NOT panning around the room - to the hard working men AND WOMEN who are manning the equipment and bringing the food, cleaning the hotel rooms and bathrooms and driving the stars to their job - it is NOT panning to the street outside with the bus drivers, nurses' aides, eligibility workers, food service workers, grocery store clerks, street cleaners, garbage collectors, firemen, sales clerks, homeless families and migrant workers. Some may say these people should not have children until they have saved enough to take the time to stay with them.that, also is a viewpoint and some have taken up this cause - it is not mine. I have chosen to work with and support, protect and promote breastfeeding in this arena.and need and appreciate learning from all of you different ways to do so, including information on the "plastic" bottles, nipples, pumps, etc. Jeanette Panchula, BSW, RN, PHN, IBCLC California (.but not Hollywood!), USA *********************************************** 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(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html