I believe the lady was probably misinformed by some well meaning person, perhaps even a health care provider, or she misinterpreted something she was told. A history of childhood abuse of some kind may also play a part in the scenario, providing a convenient "socially acceptable reason" to fend off encouragement to breastfeed. Now may be a teachable moment to inform her about the fact that completion of the fifth physiological stage of reproduction actually lowers the statistical risk of premenopausal breast cancer. Perhaps this fact alone might open the door to future consideration of indirect breastfeeding at least for a while, especially if she were to have a premie. At any rate, even mothers who do not breastfeed undergo involution of many of the "leaves of their glandular tree" between pregnancies and still "sprout new leaves" (develop new glandular tissue) in "springlike" response to each new placenta, even if they don't plan to breastfeed. Or as my CBE teaching mentor always put it "Nature prepares every mother to breastfeed whether she plans to or not." I have found that newly pregnant women will feel physical improvement for 24 hours each time they take a warm shower, let the water drizzle over the breasts for a short while, and gently massage them for several minutes in the same manner as for a monthly SBE. Perhaps this will be acceptable to her at this stage, without feeling she has been exposed to any real "sermon" on benefits of breastfeeding, since it commonly falls within a "detecting-disease-oriented context" rather than within a "preparing-to-breastfeed" context. Jean *************** K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC Dayton, OH *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html