After being "No Mail" for a number of months it is good to be back! I went to the "Salon" web-site and was horrified by what I read. I've attached the letter I wrote to their editors. Kirsten Clary, RNC I read with interest your article on the young mother whose baby died from failure to thrive. I was pleased to read the comments of Dr. Ruth Lawrence And Dr. Richard Aubry, and as a breastfeeding educator and a Registered nurse whose job it is to support and educate military parents, I agree whole-heartedly with their opinion on this very sad case. I did get the sense you were trying to find a reason to portray breastfeeding as a potentially dangerous practice, but overall I found your coverage, on the most part, to be fair and unbiased...until I went to the links after your article. The articles Got Milk? and Crème Booblee were degrading and patronizing to women. The illustration showing a woman's head on a cow's body was offensive. Ms. Frosts stated in Got Milk: "It breaks with the fiction that professional women are androgynous, that we don't have sex. It exposes us as sexual, physical, leaking human beings." Actually, breastfeeding and pumping at work do the exact opposite. With the advent of our formula-feeding society our breasts have been "reduced" to that of sexual object only. The breasts' primary function is to nourish our children. To suggest that pumping her breasts at work causes a woman to be sexualized does not make sense. My work with breastfeeding mothers (90% are full-time employed active duty women) has illustrated profoundly the dignity and strength of a woman willing to overcome social stigma in order to provide the best nutrition for her child. These women are all competent, effective individuals who demand of their co-workers respect for their dual roles of mother and professional. Sure, many of them have been faced with some of the challenges mentioned by Ms. Frost - the inability to find a comfortable place to pump, the time element involved etc., but they have all expressed the belief that to continue the breastfeeding relationship with their child is well worth the inconveniences they encounter. Many large companies are now providing women with services of board certified lactation consultants, and comfortable, dignified rooms in which to pump. I do not believe these companies came up with the idea for this wonderful benefit on their own. It was the result of women refusing to accept this all-important aspect of their gender as being something embarrassing and somehow indecent...and guess what? These companies have reaped huge financial rewards for supporting this basic human, female function. The fact that it is women who degrade one of the most important contributions to human society, the nurturing and feeding of future generations, is very troubling to me. When will we learn that every aspect of being a woman is a strength, not a weakness? There is nothing "cow like" about providing the nutrition nature meant for our babies. What is "cow-like" is feeding cow's milk to human babies. Kirsten Clary, RNC Mother Family Advocacy Nurse Specialist Breastfeeding Educator