Dear all, My name is Dina Ovando-Brown and I have been an RN for 12 years and done a wide variety of work-such as Maternal/Child, Emergency Medicine, trauma during that time. When I have my daughter 4 1/2 years ago my world changed forever...I was not prepared for the intensity of the bond nor the fierceness of my mother-love. I had some mild problems with breastfeeding and contacted an IBCLC and it has been a wild ride since then. I stayed home for the 4-5 months then was drafted by my LC to start working at an obstetrical clinic as a peer counselor for experience, got my CLE and will be taking the IBCLE this July after chipping away at the clinical hours for the last 4 years. FINALLY!!! Enough about me. I have been lurking on LACNET for about a year and am responding to Kathy D.'s post and am in total agreement. I took my daughter with me to the clinic with the support of my LC from the time she was 4-5 months part time. She is now 4 1/2. I am now taking my 8 month old son and have been since he was 4 months old. I have so many reactions-"You bring him to work with you?" "He is so happy and healthy" "You don't mind?" They see that I can work and breastfeed. He goes to staff meeting, consultations and childbirth classes with me. More of the women in the office are intermittently bringing their children. Our children are a reality in our lives as is our careers and interests, why do we try to divide one from the other? When isolated at home with no other support, is it a wonder that we have such high postpartum depression? Our clients at the clinic are lower socioeconomic clients and many have never seen functional parenting or breastfeeding past 6 weeks or at all. My son serves as a role model. I have had many women come to me and tell me that they breastfed longer because they saw me breastfeeding my daughter for sooo long. When I was leaving on maternity leave with my son everyone was anxious about my return date my answer was "if I can bring my son in 4 months, without him at least a year." He is at work with me now. We MUST DEMAND better conditions as women, mothers and workers in our society and improve the situations for ourselves and our children-we deserve it. Dina Ovando-Brown BSN, CCE, CLE Long Beach, CA _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html