I have really appreciated the recent dicussion of guilt vs. grief for moms who have not been able to breastfeed. I do full service family practice and enjoy asking my elderly patients about their breastfeeding experiences when I have time. I am impressed at how women in their 70s and 80s sometimes relate stories of trying and failing to breastfeed with such emotion that it seems like something that happened last week instead of 50 or 60 years ago. Some tell me stories, then, of how proud they are that all their grandchildren were breastfed. I hadn't heard before the eloquent descriptions some of you posted about how the emotion these ladies felt is not guilt, but grief. It seems so clear to me now -- and even more impressive that this grief could go on for so many years. After reading the stories at the pro-formula feeding website, although many discuss the "guilt" they felt, it seems that grief may be a more accurate description. Most faced very difficult situations with inadequate support and seem so sad that they weren't able to breastfeed. Jennifer Tieman Family Physician Mom to 3, and new baby #4 expected 5/31/03 *********************************************** 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