>I'm in my usual crunch to complete my newsletter article and really need to
>whittle it down.  It's much too long.  I'd like to utilize your experiences
>and get a vote on the biggest obstacle you see in our culture.  (I'm not
>asking much, am I?)

I think that it is the familiarity with and acceptance of the bottle as the
normal feeding method for an infant.  Sometimes when I see the fear and
shame in a woman's eyes when she pictures herself feeding her baby at her
breast in front of others, or even of their *knowing* that she feeds her
baby at her breast, I can empathisize with her resistance to placing
herself in a place of derision and judgment.

For many women it takes great courage to go so against the norm of the
culture. We can give her all of the information about health benefits and
joys of breastfeeding, but she is there in a hostile environment where she
is not celebrated for her efforts, but is attacked by "the group."

Some of us are used to going against the grain, and in the early days of
LLL we were the ones rebellious enough to let people know that we were
breastfeeding. Today, we are working with women who eat what "everyone
else" eats, watches TV shows that "everyone else" watches, laughs at jokes
that "everyone else" laughs at, likes music that "everyone else" likes, and
she, too, wants to do what is best for her baby.  But all of those
"everyone elses" don't join her in that leap toward changing the picture to
a *new* way of infant feeding. She finds that she is made fun of or snubbed
or left isolated in a back room.  It is hard to feel fully good about
herself. I admire anyone who does find the courage to continue in such an
environment.

So that gets my vote for the major obstacle, right up there with
mismanagement.
This is why we still need support groups such as LLL, and why we need to
continue our diligence against the bottle as the symbol of BABY.

Patricia Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee

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