I've been at work all weekend but following the discussion about Jen Tieman's case with the daycare providers who don't see the difference between nurturing and feeding, and all the rest of it. One of the most important people in terms of forming me as a mother was my first daycare provider, a woman I met in childbirth class who had breastfed her first child for over 3 years, and whose second baby was born the same week as my daughter. Had it not been for the fact that I had to go back and finish nursing school and she was available to care for my child, including providing a breast to suckle if my child wanted that, I would not have had the opportunity to see what child care could be in the ideal world. I would not have been as discriminating in other aspects of my children's growing up. When we moved from the US to Norway and I was a stranger in a town where I had absolutely no history and no network, I met people mainly in two arenas: the breastfeeding mothers' organization, and the daycare my daughter was fortunate enough to attend, to help her learn Norwegian. Some of our closest family friends today are families we met because our children attended the same daycare. If we had not needed that childcare, we wouldn't have relationships with these particular people. The thought of my life without those friends is bleak indeed. I think one of the important things we can do as people who work with breastfeeding mothers is to work for changes on a societal level so that mothers will be able to be near their children for at least the first 6 months. It would be so great if the International Labor Organization recommendations for maternity leave were made to apply in the US too, allowing for breastfeeding breaks and real leave for every woman who needs it. After that, we need to ensure that child care facilities of all kinds truly respect childrens' needs, and we don't need to judge mothers who make different choices from ours - if they even had a choice, which they frequently don't. Rachel Myr Kristiansand, Norway *********************************************** 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(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html