Marie wrote:
>I wish the standard parent text books would drop this subject of BFin and
>orgasms. It truely turns a lot of mom's and dad's off to the whole idea.

        This is a tricky call. While I do not doubt that some pregnant parents may be
dismayed by this information, others may be be truly grateful to know that experiencing
sexual arousal while breastfeeding (even to the point of orgasm)is within the bounds of
*normal*, and is caused by hormones rather than an overactive or prurient imagination.

        Some of you may remember that only a few years ago, a NY State woman was
arrested, and her child placed in protective custody, because this was not general
knowledge. All women need to know how their bodies work. *How* we disseminate this
information, however, is crucial.

        As an example, a certain abm company includes an excerpted edition of a popular
breastfeeding book with its free videos. The booklet is cleverly formatted so that the
contents page is simply a list of all the uncomfortable, embarressing and potentially
dangerous situations that could possibly happen while breastfeeding. While *we* would
dismiss this list as concerns that could either be prevented or remedied with good
breastfeeding management, an uninformed pregnant mother might easily be overwhelmed to
the point of deciding that bottle feeding would be easier, and that, of course, is
exactly what the abm company hopes to achieve.

        In the same way, *we* need to handle potentially embarressing information with
finesse. Timing is everything. It would be relatively easy, for example, to include this
information in a discussion of hormonol changes during pregnancy and lactation.
Explaining that sexual arousal is just part of the continuum which begins with a warm,
fuzzy, motherly feeling, need be no more difficult than explaining why some nursing
mothers eject milk while having an orgasm and, indeed, it *is* part of the same
mechanism. We do need to be sensitive to the fact that many people are uncomfortable with
their own sexuality, but not to the point of withholding information "for their own
good."



Norma Ritter IBCLC, LLLL
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"If not now, when? If not us, who?" R. Hillel