Robyn,

We have a lot of military families in North Carolina.  The biggest obstacle 
to breastfeeding I see in active duty moms is the culture that you can be a 
mother or you can be a soldier, but if you're a soldier, the mother part is 
strictly on your own time and the baby is definitely not your first 
priority!  This is a real struggle for many moms who desire a career, but 
don't want to sacrifice their children.  I guess that's what all working 
moms face, but in the military they can compel you to leave your child.

A very undersupported group is the breastfeeding military wife.  There is a 
mom in my LLL group, whose husband has been home for a total of about 4 
months in the past 3 years, fighting in Afghanistan and then Iraq.  The 
pressure on these moms is enormous as they are single moms, but not!  There 
is no one to take the baby for a few minutes, no one to say they are doing a 
good job, no one to support them at all, then when their husbands do come 
home, they are used to being batchelors and have a hard time reintegrating 
into the family.  There is tremendous pressure on these mothers to wean so 
that they can leave the baby and get a break and to not sleep with the baby 
to save that space for their husbands (misguided as it is).

Melanie Young
IBCLC, LLL of Johnston County, NC 

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