Dear Rachel,

I don't envy you your decision as to what word to use to call that stuff
that comes from the breast.  Here are some comments I made in July last
year when this subject came up in a different forum.

The one item I think you should consider carefully is the use of "breast
milk" as two words.  In England use of each form has been about 50/50,
but opinion is favouring "breastmilk".  I spent some time talking to
Gabrielle Palmer (author of the Politics of Brestfeeding) who told me
international preference is now "breastmilk".  Dr Felicity Savage-King
(WHO, author of UNICEF's 40 hour course and one of LLL(GB)'s Panel of
Professional Advisors) advocates "breastmilk" and is working very hard
for consistency in terminology.  We don't agree that "human milk" should
be the preferred term as "breastmilk" creates the image of the breast and
the mother while "human milk" suggests that it doesn't matter how the
milk is delivered.  The preferred term will depend on the context.

I'm sure you will get good reasons for choosing each form, so good luck.

Jill Dye
La Leche League leader, England