~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The strand of discussion of which Jennifer Laycock's is part shows how much mothers in some parts of the world are disadvantaged by a) an early return to work and b) lack of truly mother-friendly industrial provisions to allow her to *breastfeed* at or near work.  Consequently, mothers are stuck with the much lesser alternative of expressing their milk and having someone feed it to their babies, often by bottle.  While this is preferable to weaning their babies onto inferior foods, it is far from an ideal option.  For one thing, expressing and bottling involves more effort and - as Jennifer mentioned - more time.  I see expressing to return to employment as a *temporary* phase in society, one that can be moved through to better options - provided enough people campaign for industrial provisions that are truly breastfeeding-friendly.  Meantime, those who benefit most from the existing situation are the pump companies.  I very much doubt that, despite their claims to be supporting mothers, they will be in the forefront of pressing for industrial reform that is truly mother-baby friendly.

Please read on, to the end of this message.  I am not talking "pie in the sky", i.e. something unrealistic.  All the time we accept second best as a great option - i.e. expressing (whether manually or by machine) and bottle-feeding the baby - we are not banding together to see what can be done that will truly enable breastfeeding.  Not breastmilk feeding with the separation of the mother and baby during feeds and the extra work of expressing, storing  and transporting the milk, but putting the baby to the mother's breast.  What industrial reform do we need?  Some examples:
a) government provision of longer and *paid* maternity leave (some countries do it); 
b) workplace creches where there are numbers of women employees of childbearing age, or cluster creches serving a number of nearby city buildings, so that babies can be cared for only a few munutes away from the mother; 
c) lactation breaks in working hours.
As regards (c), may I remind everybody that smokers are outside the building for a lot of time each day - even if the breaks are short, they can be frequent, and add up over the day.  I know of no company that docks smokers' wages for this absent time, and I believe this is a good precedent for those campaigning for breastfeeding mothers to have breastfeeding breaks.

Please read on.  Before you put the improvement of industrial provisions into the "too-hard" basket, consider this.  In our lifetimes, in many countries, changes have been made to these situations, which previously would have been considered "too hard" to do.
- speed limits on the roads
- driving on a particular side of the road and other road-safety rules that we don't even think of now
- penalties for drink driving / drunk driving
- votes for women
- smoking bans inside public and commercial buildings and on public transport
- removal of smoking advertisements
- mandatory seatbelts in cars, and penalties for failing to use them
- mandatory use of infant safety capsules when carrying infants in cars

Let's have a constructive dialogue, not just on a wish list, but on *how* some countries have *achieved* improvements and what can be done elsewhere.  Change requires persistence over time, but can be done.  See the examples, above!

Virginia
in sunny Brisbane, Australia

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jennifer Laycock wrote:
Remember, there
are mothers who return to the work place and are not able to take their
babies with them. This makes pumping a necessity. ..... I in no way saw it as saying that pumping instead of direct nursing would
save you time.
 


             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome