All on this list, LLL and some at the AAP know breastmilk and formula
are not comparable.  But does the general public have the knowledge to
really buy into this fact?  I think not, or this wouldn't be such an
uphill struggle to get hospitals and their staff to give the moms what
they *ought* to be demanding--help to give their own milk to their
newborns.
(For example, in the past year or two, one of our local hospitals cut
the IBCLC's from their staff and budget.  It is back to nurses only the
way it was when I had my 1st there almost 27 years ago.  Unbelievable!)

In the past 25-30 years mothers demanded rooming in, childbirth
education classes and birthing coaches.  Moms then demanded birthing
rooms and got them.  Now moms are demanding so-called pain-free
deliveries and are getting them with epidurals.  Until something serious
turns things around, like mad cow disease being a complication of giving
bovine based formula, a hue and a cry won't go out to demand
breastfeeding as a right.

There is subtle breastfeeding sabotage everywhere we turn.  The various
media that don't depict breastfeeding as "usual and customary"
(to use a medical term) in our culture, so it is being thwarted.  Only
highly independent women succeed on their own in spite of all the odds.
Most others fail.

Why bow out and let the artificial feeding corporate conglomerates
get all the press and advertising?   I think asking for equal space
and equal access to advertising makes more sense.  And a disclaimer
from Dr. Sears that breastfeeding is the food of choice to appear
on each individual page teaching bottle feeding tactics is one thing to
ask for if he continues to plug artificial milk.  If he won't give it
up, it may be time to negotiate.  Even he doesn't yet know how his
formula stance may result in repercussions to his future lecturing
schedule.
Judy Ritchie

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