I would like to reintroduce myself briefly after being off Lactnet for about two years (having moved, remarried, changed jobs and had a third child in that time period). I am a social worker and IBCLC at Arkansas Department of Health, working in the state office and in maternity clinics with nurse midwives and OB/Gyn residents. I have three children, breastfed the first two much longer than the US average and am still nursing #3 at 18 months. About the discussion about LLL and the Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. I feel experienced from both points of view. My introduction to breastfeeding (other than my mother breastfeeding all four of us) was with my first child 13 years ago, reading WAB and attending La Leche League meetings. One of my best friends is a LLLI leader and I keep in touch with other leaders in town. I think LLLI philosophy in general is the gold standard, the ideal I wish I could convince everyone I have contact with to endorse and live. However, having worked with low income women as a social worker and lactation consultant for some years now, I have had to modify my approach in order to reach more people. For example, thirteen years ago I would never have mentioned formula as okay for a woman going back to work. I would have promoted pumping as the only option. Now, I always say something like "if you don't want to pump or are unable to at work, the baby can have formula while you're gone and you can breastfeed when you get home." Some women don't realize they can do this and assume they have to quit breastfeeding when they go to work. They think you can't "mix" the two. Although there is some small chance that someone who would have pumped will use formula because of what I say, I think there are many more that would have just quit breastfeeding completely. I used to promote LLLI meetings as a support system to the women in the clinic where I work. None of them ever went. Yes, for whatever reasons, LLLI does have the reputation of being "extreme" and "white upper/middle class." In the same way, if I handed out copies of WAB to many of the women in the clinic, they would probably react as Cathy Barger did. First of all, they would be overwhelmed by the amount of information and think that if it is that complicated they probably can't do it. I got negative/guilt messages about working myself when I went to meetings (like when a leader brought up a three year old that was having behavioral problems and said "of course her mother works and we know how that must contribute to the situation") but it was still worth it to me to go because I agreed so much with everything else that was said. Some people less secure could be turned off more by such comments. BUT no group/book can meet the needs of all people! So I would hate for LLLI to compromise too far in either their meetings or their book just so that they don't turn anybody off to breastfeeding. They were once the only source in many areas, but not any more. So I agree with the different strokes for different folks comment.