LactNetters -- this is my reply to Stephanie about the instructor not
blasting the ignorant student for saying that "pumping is sick" in class.

Stephanie,
        Before you write a letter blasting the teacher for responding
inappropriately to the comment about pumping being "sick" -- first, give
yourself a few days to cool off; second, write the letter and let it sit for
a few days more; third, consider that the teacher may have been as
amazed/surprised/disgusted at the student's comment as you were, and was so
discombobulated that she didn't respond with the most intelligent answer at
the time, but just blurted out the first thing that came into her head.  As
a professor with almost 20 years of experience in the classroom, I can
recall a number of occasions when I didn't think of a good response to a
student comment until I was back in my office!  Especially when the student
comment was stupid/inappropriate -- and especially when a *really good*
response would have taken the rest of the class room time.  In your letter,
you might express sympathy with the teacher by saying something like "I'm
sure you were as surprised and dismayed as I was......"  And perhaps offer
suggestions, such as "Next time you teach this class, maybe you could spend
more time talking about the critical importance of breastfeeding for optimal
child and maternal health, and head off comments like that one by explaining
in positive terms how working mothers can continue to provide milk for their
children through pumping.  Sort of a preemptive strike.....Maybe you could
even include a brief discussion of cultural barriers to breastfeeding
promotion and support...."  You could certainly refer her to my chapter
"Beauty and the Breast: The Cultural Context of Breastfeeding in the United
States" as something she might want to read or even assign to students next
time she teaches the class.  It's a chapter in my co-edited book (with
Patricia Stuart-Macadam) titled "Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives"
published by Aldine de Gruyter in 1995.  In other words, try to make it
positive, and act as though you are assuming you and the teacher *agree*.  I
think that will have a much greater impact than if you criticize the teacher
-- sounds like she was just flabbergasted!

Kathy Dettwyler