Heather welcome to L'net and the emotional and educational fray --

I want to address the question that you raised about the Utah women being maybe sexually abused, and therefore pumping instead of breastfeeding, and wondering if BF wouldn't be less traumatic to abused women.

First of all, dealing with Mormon women, which is mainly what we are talking about when we talk about women from Utah -- I think the place of the Mormon woman in the home and family is still not a very free one, and as such, I think many Mormon women are abused, psychologically, certainly, if not physically.

How previously or currently abused women view breastfeeding varies alot with what else they have done to get beyond their abuse.  Some women (abused or not) have such severe issues with their bodies that having their breasts touched for any reason, including nurturing their infants, is too traumatic, either physically or emotionally or both.  

I had a mom who could not bear her infant on her breast, when physically there should have been no pain.  At first the baby was sucking incorrectly, only sucking against the nipple. But no pain.    Mom wouldn't let us watch BF, and kept insisting that things were okay.  It was only when we wouldn't let her go home -- we have to "see" two successful BF episodes with babies whose moms say they want to mostly breastfeed -- that this was discovered.  After working with this woman for more than 24 hours after the discovery, we got the baby nursing correctly, but mom couldn't stand more than a few minutes before she was shrieking from pain.   She could bear the pressure of the pump, on low, however, and went on to provide EBM for her baby for three months.  She also, I'm told, got to the point that she could actually nurse once a day.  

I have had other moms tell me that they can stand the pump, because it is mechanical and one-step removed from the physical experience of breastfeeding.

I have had some moms tell me that nursing helped them heal emotional wounds from abuse, and others who could not nurse until those wounds were healed elsewise.

I had one mom who bottlefed her first baby formula, she couldn't stand the idea of breastfeeding, or even the idea of harvesting her own milk for her baby.  With the second baby (this is when I met her), she was willing to pump with a machine (not by hand, too personal!!).  With her third I met her again, and she breastfed.

I thank the fates for every woman with a history of abuse, or stated repugnance to nursing for any reason, who is willing to try, and then willing to expand on her experience.

As you see, even from my limited experience,  abuse and the subject of breastfeeding can lead to a lot of different endings.  As can just breastfeeding without a previous history of abuse.

Sincerely,  Chanita, San Francisco