Thank you Sarah,

My response would have been a lot less tactful than yours. I am still trying to catch my breath.

Virginia, your statement offended me so vehemently, I can hardly breathe nearly 15 minutes after reading it.

For 9 years (and 2 months and 12 days), I have been BREASTFEEDING in the military. In that time, there wasn't much BreastMILK feeding at all -- only one of my three children would take a bottle and that was only for about 6 months, one feeding, 4 times a week. 

I had my babies with me more often than not, so they could BREASTFEED. 

I didn't sleep. I averaged 4 hours a night for many, many years because my babies needed to BREASTFEED.

I only pumped past the 12-month mark so that I could donate milk to other babies who needed it. My children have 3 "milk siblings."

As I close in on 17 years of service to the United States, I look around my workplace and see all the men who were promoted ahead of me. I ask why and I am told "they demonstrated a stronger commitment to the organization." I guess I was too busy tending to my children on TDY trips while these "committed" men were drinking together at the hotel bar. 

My children's weaning ages were 3y8m, 3y10m, and the little one still enjoys her "nursies" on occasion at 4y2m. This was especially nice during her hospitalization in December for major craniofacial surgery. 

My children love how I smell, and run to my bed in the morning to snuggle against my chest. They all associate that sleepy pajama smell with comfort, with mother. The oldest turned 9 in December. 

I respectfully request that you *never again* attempt to cheapen the experience in my life of which I am, far and away, the most proud. I BREASTFEED in the military, and resources like Robyn's help to make sure more mothers are afforded the opportunity to do the same. Allow me to say again: there is nothing in my life -- no achievement -- about which I am more proud than that I breastfed my children while on active military duty. 

A broken system? It most certainly is. I'm pursuing my Master of Public Health in Health Policy and Management right now because I aim to fix what is broken. 

In the meantime, I'm proud that my example has created a breastfeeding culture among the women in my organization and the wives of the men I work with. They look at me and my beautiful, healthy children and say "if she did it, I can do it." There are constructs and policies in place to guarantee this opportunity for them, as well -- constructs and policies I initiated and implemented (with little or no help from some of those "leaders" I referred to previously, by the way).

I ask that you reserve your comments for those things about which you are truly an expert ... Dr. Thorley, those topics are many, but this is not one of them. 

Would you similarly attack the efforts of the mother with mammary hypoplasia who bottlefeeds donor milk or formula to her baby to complement what breastfeeding she is able to do? Would you scoff at her as you have me and tell her the experience she completely devoted herself to was "less than" in some way? 

Respectfully,
Diana Cassar-Uhl, IBCLC, LLL Leader
Mother to Anna, Simon, and Gabriella
Sergeant First Class, US Army
MPH and CHES candidate, 2013
Cornwall, NY

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