You said: >Up here in enlightened No. Cal., at Kaiser Hospital in San Francisco> I just had to let you know that I was a pediatric resident at Kaiser SF from 1989-1992 (before the new birthing area was completed). Even before the new physical plant was built, the pediatricians and obs worked hard to promote and support breastfeeding for all babies from preemies to the normal newborn. The FAMCAP program (utilizing nurse practictioners to home visit mom and baby) has been in place for many years. One could do an "early discharge" knowing that mom and baby would be visited daily over several days (BTW there were very strict criteria for "early dc" during my tenure there- parents had to have a stable support system set up). This experience along with my experiences in Medical School motivated me to support breastfeeding families as much as possible. While I was in Med School at the University of Chicago-Pritzker (home of Dr L Gartner) from1978-1983, I was granted a one year predoctoral fellowship in nutrition to study infant feeding patterns in an adolescent mother population (1980-81). I fondly remember following one of the neonatalogy attendings around (the late Dr Diana Woo). Diana had a newborn at the time that she would take by papoose on rounds and breastfeed in front of the parents! Very powerful message! Now that I am a breastfeeding pediatrician I bring Joshua Mandela everywhere and breastfeed almost everywhere (I'm not back to work yet-trying to stay on leave for four months-max I can afford as a single mom without Josh's dad's help). My latest "fete" was breastfeeding standing up and walking with him in a sling at Costco (a warehouse store). He was screaming, my friend Aurora said--"feed him now!" I did and we had a peaceful rest of shopping-Josh was very comfortably and discretely breast fed. Breast Milk Rules! Pierrette Mimi Poinsett MD FAAP Modesto CA