--------------------- Forwarded message: From: [log in to unmask] (Denhez Louise) To: [log in to unmask] (Milee Ed @aol.com) CC: [log in to unmask] Date: 96-12-17 22:57:57 EST As a medical student with a "delinquent" strand, I read everything I could about unmedicated labor, and breastfeeding (including "Spiritual Midwifery"... and was labeled "a poet" by a friendly though rough obstetrician). Obviously, I ended up helping my friends to bf. So, of course, when my time came, the least I could do was breastfeeding. My husband was all for it, all my sisters-in-law had bf for a max of 10 mo, and my mother was adamantly though politely against it, thinking that I was doing it "just to prove something"... My first son weaned at five months, and I was so proud that I had not forced him. In fact, I had nursed him morning and evening 7 days a week, thinking that the supply would hold. It did not. My daughter weaned at 10 months, because a bottle was much easier to drag around than the mommy. I knew better than the first time, and was disappointed. And Felix is still nursing... 34 months, nursing every evening, and most mornings. He says "good" and "licious", smaking his lips after a feed, and graciously opens his mouth when he hears me go "ouch". No more interested in weaning than in toilet training. Is there any other way of mothering ? Louise Denhez, M.D., M.P.H Chargee d'enseignement clinique Departement de medecine sociale et preventive Montreal, Quebec