Sarah et al -- I have to say I feel truly privileged to be a family physician. Doing "womb-to-tomb" medicine, I have many multigenerational families in my practice. Since I do provide maternity care, I have the opportunity to work with families as they think about having children, during the pregnancy, during the birth (where I usually consider myself as the "assistant", helping mom and her partner to birth their own child), and then I have the joy of caring for the new infant. This continuum of care allows me so many opportunities to promote family health, and there is nothing that fulfills the concept of family health better than breastfeeding. For me, being an FP is truly a calling from G-d, giving me the opportunity to help so many people. I've wanted to be a doc since I was 4 years old, and can't imagine myself doing anything else in terms of a job (of course, being a mom is a full time job, but we're talking about professions here). The only difficulty w/ my chosen profession is that, ironically, it is difficult for me to bring my children to work w/ me. Despite this, I did BF my first for 15 months (I did grow to loathe my pump though). Because of this, I have chosen to take almost a year away from formal work (although I seem to be doing bits and pieces that allow me to be a mom first, doc second). Also, when I do go back to work, I'm going into academic medicine, which will allow me more control over my schedule, more time w/ my family, and more opportunities to influence future generations of docs to be active supporters of BF. A long answer to a short question, but something i care about a great deal. Thanks for asking! Elizabeth Steiner MD, FAAFP Portland OR *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html