>In a message dated 8/28/99 10:32:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
><< Yes, Valerie, I agree.  And I disagree with Susan who says a woman who
> feels permanently guilty 'for breathing' is in need of psychiatric help. >>
>
>I have to agree with Susan on this point. Anyone who is feeling that guilty,
>that often probably does need referral to a mental health professional.

Yes, Laura, I agree - many  women who are feeling guilty a lot of /all the
time do indeed benefit from counselling of some sort - but I would make the
distinction between that and the assumption that this is inevitably a
*psychiatric*  ie medical condition.  People may feel very bad about
themselves for social and cultural reasons - but I can't really discuss
this as I am not a mental health professional.

 In any case, the point I was making was really that we should still, as bf
supporters, remain sensitive to the fact that what we say may well make
mothers feel guilty (or more guilty)...and that should not stop us being
fully truthful about breastfeeding, but it should make us careful about how
we say what we say. That remains true whether the mother is suffering from
a psychiatric condition, emotional upset,  or plain ol' vanilla
motherhood-type guilt - the sort we all recognise from time to time at
least.  That's all!

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK

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