I was brought up short about the assumption I awlasy had that these words are synonymously used when I began traveling outside North America. In most countries, nursing refers to professional nurses and what they do (regardless of who their patients are). In some places (Australia), one nurses a child when a male (or female) cares for the child, as on a plane. "If you are nursing a child, be sure to put your mask on first and then the child's." When I first heard this without looking at the picture, I thought, "How nice that the airline would recongize breastfeeding!" Boy, was I surprised when I saw the picture and it showed a 3 yr old on a Dad's lap--not breastfeeding, either!. Breastfeeding refers to just that. Sometimes "feeding" is used hwen it is clear that the baby is suckling the breast. I agree with Chele Marmet that breastfeeding needs to come out of the linguistic/cultural closet. Byh using that weord, we force people (including ourselves) to recognize the adult function of the breast as an organ. I belive that is important and now use "nursing" far less frequently than I used to. It does not seem to bother people as much as I was bothered by it when first I began to use that term. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% "We are all faced with a series of great opportunities %% %% brilliantly disguised as impossible situations." %% %% definition of a lactation consulting service. %% %% Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC - [log in to unmask] %% %% Homewood, Illinois USA %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%