The conversation about nurse-ins has been an interesting one for me. 
Barbara, there is value in the feel-good events, and you are right, 
they should lead to or grow out of more long term involvement. It is 
unfortunate that the long term involvement can't be just nursing you 
children and that we need a political movement to help make that happen 
for all the women who want it, but that is the reality of our lives. Do 
you have membership forms handed out at the feel good events? When 
people are feeling good about something is when they are likely to join 
up. I think it is also important to emphasize to others what you 
emphasize so eloquently to us in your periodic reminders about the 
value of membership. Just being a member, without necessarily putting 
in hours of work, is an important statement. It lets the organizations 
know that you support their efforts. When organizations lobby for their 
cause, it is very important that they can say they have a mandate from 
X thousand members to pursue this effort.
We are moving mountains, one breastfeeding mom, one supportive 
bystander at a time.
Thank you Barbara for your valuable insights and your reminders to us 
all.
Thanks to all who have contributed to this conversation.

Naomi Bar-Yam

P.S. I do think it is interesting that Barbara Walters changed her tune 
on what her comments about bfing were. I don't think of it as lying, 
but that the pressure brought to bear made her want to distance herself 
from her comments. That's not a bad thing. Would have been better to 
own up to them and say she learned something from the nurse-in, but do 
we really expect that today? Barbara Walter's mountain moved just a 
little, let's take a moment to enjoy that.

On Jun 8, 2005, at 4:51 AM, LACTNET automatic digest system wrote:

>  If all the people in Austin who show up once a
> year for a 15 min. feel-good event would pay annual dues to a bfg 
> group to
> help with legislative lobbying, or would join ILCA or IBFAN or 
> whatever, we
> might be able to move some mountains.
--------------------------------
Naomi Bar-Yam Ph.D.
[log in to unmask]

Researcher, Writer, Educator
in Maternal and Child Health
--------------------------------

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