May I make one last  comment about touching? Diane W. says:
<<Wouldn't she begin to wonder why she was so untouchable?  When we act this
way with breasts, skilled woman to novice woman, are we perhaps reinforcing
a strange cultural aversion?>>

Well, I totally get what you're saying, and you make a good point,and I
think that in most cases you & others are absolutely right, and all is
usually quite "normal" in touching women's breasts when helping them nurse.
I think all that the other voices are saying is that you never really know
how a woman will feel about it or what she brings with her to the
interaction, and it can never be wrong to keep that in mind during an
exam/consult & not impose our assumptions about what we consider "normal".
And, all of us "touchers" not withstanding, I can tell you for an absolute
fact that *many* women have told me that they hated the way a nurse or other
hcp handled their breasts. I think that we are so comfortable with breasts
(my teen-aged daughters male friends all can't believe that I look at
breasts all day for a living!) that sometimes we forget that not everyone is
equally comfy. I was once called to the home (for bfing help) of a woman
from another culture who could not even expose her hands to me, let alone
her breasts; I had to direct all suggestions,etc. through her husband,
without even being allowed to see her nurse the baby. (I will admit to
wondering how I was supposed to help them, but they were very pleased with
my help and with the fact that I respected their requirements.) Thank the
presiding deity/ies that the baby was actually thriving and that "the
problem" was mostly that the parents didn't know what to expect!

Cathy Bargar, RN, IBCLC Ithaca NY