As a woman who spent 3 years in the Airforce,I concur with all the Kathy
says. However, I strongly believe that the removal of either parent from the
family environment for any significant length of time is unacceptable. In terms
of a breastfeeding mother, I am particularily disturbed by the treatment of
these dyads. As far as the argument that they joined the Airforce knowing of
these conditions, what I have to say is this, "Who signed the dotted line for
the child?"
In a message dated 6/10/2003 2:22:19 PM Pacific Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
> As the wife of a retired US military man, I feel the need to speak up. I
> have definite opinions regarding mother-infant separation. I also had to
> spend
> too many months &years as a single-not-by-choice parent who's spouse was
> sent
> overseas to provide medical care for US troops involved in wars/battles with
> no idea of when (or if) he'd be back. The US military has come a long way
> in
> providing more equal rights to female military members...I remember when a
> female would be kicked out of the military when she became pregnant. But
> equal
> rights have had a downside, in that when any person signs on that dotted
> line,
> their body becomes the property of the US military branch in which they have
> enlisted, and their rights are no more. Examples: mandatory urine and blood
> testing on a regular basis, the loss of rights to sue the military for any
> reason
> including incompetent health care, low pay and lower-than-cost-of-living
> raises every year (the vast majority of the military families have incomes
> low
> enough to qualify for WIC), mandatory vaccinations with unproven serums, and
> loss
> of the right to have a say in living locations around the world. This
> provides quite the quandry...provide equal rights (in the military sense) to
> all
> military members (all are eligible for deployment at the drop of a hat) or
> discriminate against women (or men, depending how you view it) and keep
> postpartum
> women at home with their babies under (pick an age). My personal feelings
> match what Rachel Myr has shared, with a twist...give all new parents, both
> male
> and female, an opportunity to be with their new family. The number of
> active
> duty military members in the US is less than 1% of the US population. In
> order
> to give these types of "benefits" keeping new families together, I suspect
> we'd need to reinstitute the draft or dramatically increase military pay to
> provide the increase in numbers of military members to provide protection
> for the
> US population.
>
>
Christine Betzold NP IBCLC MSN
www.starfireinternational.net/breastfed
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