I try to first give positive reinforcement for however long the mom breastfed. Then I give a little speech about how moms can only breastfeed as long as they have the resources to do so, whether those resources are time, support, money, or whatever. I then sneak in the suggestion that it is possible to start breastfeeding again if her situation changes. If it is her first baby, I usually also make a suggestion that things are generally much easier with subsequent babies. If I think a mom is wavering but she has not yet quit bf, I try to talk to her about the barriers, the things that are toughest for her, and we try to problem solve those things. I also try to give anticipatory guidance for the upcoming challenges - returning to work if this is applicable, breasts softening if mom is worried about supply, etc. This heads off some of the quitting. I also encourage moms to come to my LLL group by offering to check the latch or help them refine it at the meeting. Once they come, they are usually hooked (I have great co-Leaders and a great group of moms). Sometimes I talk about how hard it was for me to sit down and feed my firstborn for 1.25h every 1.5h (who had multiple bf problems) while my house got dusty - a real "toughie" for Mediteranean cultures. It helps for them to know that someone else didn't immediately love everything about breastfeeding, but grew to love it over time. And definately vent to your colleagues here. I do call my LC friends and complain when someone quits for what seem like frivolous reasons, when other moms move heaven and earth to even partially breastfeed. Catherine Watson Genna, IBCLC NYC *********************************************** 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