Chris,
What a wonderful post...Thank you.  I feel a great debt of gratitude to the
women who persevered in breastfeeding their children in the 60's and 70's.
I am the 33 year old daughter of a woman who had seven children.  My mother
is not what you might consider a "renegade crusader".  She is actually a
quite shy person.  However, in the age of medicated births and artificial
feedings she insisted on having all seven children without drugs (even when,
for three of us, my father could not be with her...I can't imagine the fear
she, as a young 20 year old must have felt).  She also insisted on
breastfeeding every single one of us.  Some of my earliest memories as a
child were cuddling up to her, the thumb of one hand in my mouth the other
hand resting on one of her breasts (it was so soft!) while she nursed one of
my little sisters.
27 years after my own birth, thousands of miles away from my extended
family, I gave birth to my son while.  I couldn't understand why I kept
getting such strong thoughts and  sensations of my own mother.   I
attributed it to that "almost-at-the-cellular-level identification" I was
beginning to feel with other mothers.  It wasn't until one night, when I was
taking off a milk-stained t-shirt, that I realized that I was catching the
scent of my own mother in my own milk.  What a wonderful, comforting smell
that was.  What a wonderful gift.  I am now passing that gift to my six year
old son.  Occasionally I will take him with me on home visits after hours.
One evening as we were leaving a client's home he said, "Mommy, I am so glad
that you teach those mommies to feed their babies from their breasts".
        I have found in my own life that it is very difficult to go against
the tide of public opinion.  I am proud of the fact I breastfed my son.  But
I am more proud of the fact that my mother paved the way for me to be able
to breastfeed my son.  Because of her, it was never a question for me.  So,
thank you, all of you, who gave us women of childbearing age such a great
example and such a precious, precious gift.

Kirsten Clary, RNC
Family Advocacy Nurse Specialist
Brooks AFB, TX