I have been following with interest the debate around NOW and the AAP guidelines. I am a New Zealander and am currently undertaking a PhD looking at the interface between breastfeeding and labour market policies This is becoming an increasingly relevant issue in this country given the increase in women with infants returning to the labour market. As in the US, we have no provision for paid leave following the birth of a child, nor do we have legislation or policy for breastfeeding breaks. We do have, however, national provision for 12 months unpaid leave. This means that for many of those women most disenfranchised in labour market terms, there is little real "chice" over breastfeeding given the need to resume paid work soon after childbirth - often to jobs that offer little scope for integrating breast pumping or breastfeeding. In my research, I have also been exploring the US approach to reconciling breastfeeding and labour market participation, as American style initiatives are, increasingly, becoming a feature of our economic landscape. My research into labour market policy has also intersected (for obvious reasons) with feminist concerns both in the US and NZ. I have argued in a paper entitled "Suckling and Silence" soon to be published in an American journal "Feminist Economics" (vol. 3, no. 3) that breastfeeding has represented a site of incredible tension for American feminists. There appear to be very understandable reasons for this given the history of protective labour legislation and more recent developments in relation to gender equality in your country. However, I conclude, along with various Lactnetters, that feminists can no longer afford to treat b/f with silence or disdain (or downright hostility) as this fails to address the underlying structural constraints which confront women who wish to combine b/f and paid work. Interestingly, while b/f has also represented a site of tension for NZ feminists, the debate over equality/ difference issues has been nowhere near as intense or divisive. If anyone is interested, I can point them to various references in relation to this. In relation to the NOW statement in USA Today and subsequent comments from NOW, I would very much appreciate it if someone could e-mail me the references to these newspots. I very much enjoy hooking into Lactnet and am glad to see that there is so much discussion around this particular issue because if one only read American feminists (or at least those concerned with labour market issues) it would not be difficult to come to the conclusion that breastfeeding had become redundant. Judith Galtry Victoria University of Wellington Private Bag 600 Wellington New Zealand