Hi Pamela This is not about forcing women to breastfeed against their will. It is about making recommendations; taking a position on an issue that has important health ramifications for infants and their mothers. No one can force me to breastfeed my baby but they can inform me that breastfeeding is so important that the all of the important authorities concerned with the health of infants recommend it. In order to make informed choices, we need professional organisations to distil the available evidence and then to make recommendation about what are the best choices to make. This is at the core of the practice of public health messaging. We don't hear the AAP encouraging mothers to make an informed choice about whether they will smoke. We don't hear the AAP encouraging mothers to make an informed choice about what position they will place their babies in to sleep. On these and a great many public health issues for which there is an overwhelming body of evidence in favour of one behaviour rather than another, the AAP and several other bodies with an interest in health promotion, take a position. They recommend not smoking and placing babies to sleep on their backs. The AAP (and the ABM) have a responsibility as public health advocates to recommend that infants, with very few exceptions, be breastfed. That is what the weight of research evidence says they should be recommending. That is why it is important for these bodies to get off the fence and take a position. Cheers Nina Berry Australia *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome