As regards the article by La Berge that I cited in my previous post (1), I 
have a suggestion. Along with lots of easily found primary and secondary 
references from the 20th century, this is a good reference for anyone 
writing a paper to defend the lactation consultant profession against 
accusations that it is the cause of the "medicalisation" of breastfeeding. 
Some articles use the term, "medicalisation". for any over-regulation or 
restrictive regimen of breastfeeding, irrespective of who is in charge of 
supervising mothers. In the 20th century in Australia, the professions 
supervising infant feeding were usually midwives and nurses, not doctors, 
and it varies from country to country today.

For so many lactnetters, as mentioned in numerous posts, protecting the 
mother-baby dyad's breastfeeding from restrictions and non-evidence-based 
rules, whatever the source, is frequently the role of the IBCLC, the LLL or 
ABA or other breastfeeding counsellor, the peer counsellor, and others. We 
are not the wolves who have come in to regulate breastfeeding!

The article that I referred to is about the life and work of a 19th-century 
physician, the author of an advice manual for better-educated mothers 
(second edition 1846). Donne (spelt with an acute accent over the "e") 
thought that mothers should not breastfeed their own babies unless permitted 
by their physicians, after a rigorous assessment.
(1) La Berge A, Mothers and infants, nurses and nursing. Alfred Donne and 
the medicalization of child care in nineteenth-century Franch. Juprnal of 
the history of Medicine and Allied Science 1991; 46.

Virginia

Dr Virginia Thorley, OAM, PhD, IBCLC, FILCA
Historian of Medicine
Private Practice Lactation Consultant (cohort of 1985)
Brisbane, QLD, Australia

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