Like many other Lactnetters (I suspect!) I have been sharing with my nearest and dearest the latest crop of
terminology for "that stuff."  My husband begged for the opportunity to add his 2 cents worth. His suggestion
is to call it a Particularly Inferior Synthetic Substitute Offered For Feeding. One could then ask if someone
was planning to breastfeed or to ......

Seriously, though, I am beginning to get a little concerned about this whole subject. Yes, its been fun to
make up silly acronyms for a clearly inferior product, but it is making me feel uncomfortable. I have to ask
myself how a non-breastfeeding mothers might feel about the names we have given to their babies food. (Yes! I
am as responsible for this as well!) For too long, nursing mothers have been belittled, scorned and put-down.
Having had personal experience of being asked to leave both public and private places because I was nursing a
baby, I know what it feels like to be treated as a second class citizen. I wholeheartedly believe that all
babies have a right to their own mother's milk and that all mothers have the right to breastfeed. I do
everything in my power to empower women so that they can follow their instincts intead of fashion and to give
them the information necessary to make informed choices. And that is what it comes down to - choices. When a
woman feeds her baby by artificial means because despite her best efforts, breastfeeding went wrong, she was
sabotaged by well-meaning but misinformed "friends" or she truly thought that it would make no difference, I
am bound to accord her the same respect that I have for women who continue to nurse until their babies
naturally wean. I believe that all mothers want the best for their babies: it is our job to make sure that
they get the information they need in a timely manner. When it comes to "that stuff," surely it is more
effective to direct our energies against the producers rather than the product.


Norma Ritter, IBCLC, LLLL                          "If not now, when? If not us, who?"
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Date: 11/11/95
Time: 20:13:36