>Kathy D. mentioned a woman at convention who admitted to breastfeeding a child of 11. That makes me extremely uncomfortable. I can wrap my mind around 2-3-4-5, but there is a point where I would have to say, "I want my body back".< All of us have our own internal limits on all kinds of aspects of breastfeeding / parenting. The important thing is working through these feelings, so that we can own them and validate them for ourselves, while being able to put them to one side in our breastfeeding support capacities. It is no good to a woman approaching you if your own agenda on breastfeeding -- in this case re: length of nursing relationship -- is mixed up in the theraputic relationship. It could be that I think women 'ought' to bf for a minimum of x (supply your own figure here) and a maximum of y (ditto) -- how useful is this? Of course, I have my own internal x and y, but *my job* is to keep these present for myself but absent *as limits* for the mother. In Rogerian person-centred counselling terms this is the tension between two of the three core counselling conditions: genuineness (being authentically yourself) and empathy (seeing the world through the eyes of the other). these are then all wrapped up in the third core condition: Unconditional Positive Regard. This is the theoretical basis for the work of the breastfeeding support organisations in the UK -- I don't know to what extent it is shared by LLL inthe US and whether any of this has crept into the IBCLC canon. It is pretty useful stuff as it provides not just a theory to organise helping around, but a safety net for ourselves. Magda Sachs Breastfeeding Supporter, BfN, UK *********************************************** 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