I have been actively engaged in legislative lobbying to promote 
breastfeeding as a public health issue since 1994, when we passed a bill in 
Texas to protect the rights of women to breastfeed in public.  While 
nurse-ins do attract a certain kind of media interest, I have mixed feelings 
about them.  The flurry of attention they create as a novelty action never 
seems to generate  sustained attention on the issues that should be 
receiving scrutiny from policy makers.

What is lacking is action to remove the barriers that prevent US women from 
meeting the stated goals.  These barriers are, in many cases, institutional 
and systemic.  They could be reduced if there was a will to do so.

I'd like to see the energy that it takes to mobilize a nurse-in be 
re-focused into a less "trendy" action.  I'd like to see crowds of women 
descend upon their state legislatures for a visit with their congressional 
representatives.  I'd like them to ask when lawmakers are going to enact 
substantive policy to ensure that formula manufacturers have less direct 
access to women in hospital (e.g. distribution of formula advertising 
samples by licensened health personnel).  Another good question would be to 
ask when employers are going to be mandated to provide reasonable access to 
privacy for a few minutes so new mothers can pump milk for their babies, or 
when health insurance companies are going to provide reimbursement for the 
services of lactation consultants.

It would also be great (and I'm echoing Karen Quena's nice post on this) if 
LCs would join their professional organizations (both locally and 
nationally) so that there would be more money and people-power to draw from 
to engage in sustained lobbying.  It's exciting to get on the news, but for 
many people, nurse-ins are everything they don't like about bfg (because 
they seem to suggest you must be an extrovert to breastfeed) and may even 
distract from serious dialog about substantive issues.

Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates
LactNews Press
www.lactnews.com

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