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Great post. Very articulate and true. I nursed for a year, and I still heard some negative remarks from older folks. Even from my dad, who's a doctor (trained in the 70s), but whose three daughters were bottle-fed and who's still slightly irritated by women who breastfeed beyond early infancy (not because of old "breast milk is not rich enough" folktales, but rather because he thinks it creates too much of a closeness and need between the mother and the child, which he considers not to be sane. I won't even start on that).    

It's always hard to find a balance between promoting breastfeeding positively, and not scold women who can't do it. My sister tried and tried and finally gave up after four months because her son had literally ripped part of her nipples off, and no help from lactation consultants nor nurses nor doctors nor natural or medicated ointments could fix it. Repeatedly, since then, she's been overtly and randomly criticized by strangers who see her pop a bottle, and this brings her to tears. I don't think the "backlash" is a good thing, and critics might lack a little perspective, but some "breastfeeding zealots" have kind of brought this upon themselves...

I interviewed a lactation consultant for my online parenting column and used a picture of a baby breastfeeding in the article.  And immediately I got a complaint about the picture.  In article a few days earlier about Tennessee laws regarding breastfeeding someone showed up to complain about women 'whipping out their boobs in public'.

Apparently there's still a long way to go.  

Yeah, you're right. I guess it may be more plain rudeness and sticking your nose in other people's businesses (which unfortunately I've been guilty of doing too) than zealotry.

How can we win when someone is judged for not breastfeeding, but also judged for doing it in public or for too long, etc.

You know, W, I agree that there is still a long way to go.  However, I have a 5 month old who refuses to nurse with a cover (without a wrestling match in which she eats little, I'm covered with milk, and people as often as not get an eyeful, lol).  I nursed her sister but always with a cover in public, so it's been an adjustment learning to be comfortable nursing without a cover.  I think I am discreet- I sure try to be.  And not a single person has ever given me any trouble whatsoever.  I've nursed in malls, restaurants, parks, airplanes.  Even poolside.  Never had a problem.  And if anyone had a problem with me, they never let me know it.  I wonder if people who make the "whipping the boobs out" comments have ever seen an actual mom actually breastfeeding, or if that's just the stereotype some people have about breastfeeders.

(I will say that Strollerderby ran an item not too long ago about a breastfeeding pin-up calendar type thing from Britain, and it had a picture of a mom nursing her baby in a cafe.  The mom had pulled her top down from the neck to nurse, which struck me as an awful lot of skin, especially compared to pulling up from the bottom.  However, just because it's not my choice, it certainly didn't offend me!)

The only even slightly bad or weird experience I've had breastfeeding actually came at an urgent care clinic, of all places!  I was on vacation and the baby had a fever, so I took her to the urgent care.  Because she didn't feel well, my daughter was fussy, and nursing kept her calm and quiet.  As I waited in the waiting area and nursed, a nurse(? tech?) came out and threw a towel over my chest and her head (which she immediately clawed off).  I thought that was weird, since, as I mentioned, I nurse with my shirt lifted up, so the towel covered maybe a half-inch of breast between the bottom of my shirt and the baby's head.  Later, when I was seen to a curtained cubicle, the PA and nurse kept closing the curtain every time they saw me nursing.  Finally, they wanted to look in the baby's ears, and she was nursing with her head to the side and one ear turned up, so I suggested looking while she was latched.  They declined and wrestled her to the bed, holding her down and making her scream while not getting a good look.

When the doctor came in, he (the only male in my interactions at the clinic) was the only one who didn't even care a little bit about me nursing, and suggested himself that he look at my daughter's ears while she was latched.  She held still, he got a good look, and I was vindicated.  I was certainly creeped out that these women- in healthcare, no less!- all had such apparent issues with me nursing.

I supposed you are right in the points you make, but frankly, the overwhelmingly negative, including downright cruel, remarks I've gotten over the past year after being unable to breastfeed, have really made it difficult to think clearly. The "feeding your baby poison" comments; the earnest attempts to "educate" me about how "breast is beast" and how I will be dooming my kid to ear infections, obesity and low intelligence (including one jaw dropping attempt to talk me into taking drugs to try to "relactate"; the express exclusion from a nearby mom's group; the demand that I explain exactly why I couldn't breastfeed, then the statement that I didn't try hard enough/long enough. Believe me, I (and most other non breastfeeding mothers) KNOW that "breast is best", and have done as much as we were individually capable of doing - with a noticable lack of support from the lactivists (I didn't see anyone offering to pay for my LC, etc.) - and feel like failures every day. How about taking a break from the "breast is best" line and instead, putting that energy into working towards things like paid maternity leave; better food safety provisions; better health coverage. Those things would do more to boost breastfeeding than the relentless criticism....

Rebecca, it makes me so sad to read that you feel like a failure every day because you weren't able to breastfeed.  If no one has said this to you: YOU ARE NOT A FAILURE AS A PARENT FOR NOT BREASTFEEDING!  I swear it!  Easier said than done, I know, but I hope you can try to ditch some of the guilt over this.  You wanted to; you tried; it didn't happen.  That's really all there is to say about it.  There's nothing to say about your kid, nothing about your parenting, nothing more, period.  I'm shocked that a mom's group would exclude you because of this.

This is all too much. I love your blog, but the debate is about one thing and one thing only: GUILT.  Damned if you do, damned if you don't and for moms (and dads) of all sorts there's no freakin' middle ground anymore.  That's the backlash.  We'd all be wise to stay out the debate, educate ourselves as best we can, and then make the best cumulative decisions on behalf of our kids, which could lead us to exclusively breast or bottle feed for any number of weeks or months, or do something in between.  And stop judging each other for it all.

I nursed my first for 13 months until she self-weaned. I nursed everywhere and anywhere and never once got a look or comment. Honestly, I never even thought of worrying about negative comments or looks. It was easy: no measuring, no warming, no cleaning bottles, no making sure we brought enough bottles, no running out of formula in the middle of the night.

This time, I am only going to be able to nurse for (hopefully) six weeks due to a medical condition that requires me to take medication that I cannot take while nursing. I had to talk my doctor into waiting for six weeks before putting me back on the medicine. Besides feeling terribly sad about not being able to nurse my second one like I did for my first, having misgivings about my ability to figure out the whole bottle thing, and feeling guilty for thinking about my own health--I am afraid of negative comments made to me about the bottle. I'm afraid that the first time someone says anything to me, I'll burst into tears.

Having been on both sides of this issue, I feel we need to stop being judgmental of anyone and the choices they make for their family.

This was so informative - thanks for taking the time to write about it!  Seriously - well done!

Thank you for writing this!  There is a nursing backlash, which sometimes feels just downright anti-feminist.  Makes me think of the snide remarks made about Sarah Palin breastfeeding at her desk in the gov. office.  Of course so many feel that nursing is in itself anti-feminist--drives me bonkers.

I feel firmly that breastfeeding saved the lives of my twin sons who are now 7, but I would not have even attempted if a neonatalogist had not implored me to.  This doc may have overstepped his bounds in a serious way--he knew I had originally planned to place the twins for adoption--but he told me as I was looking at these 3-pound babies in incubators that, frankly, if I was willing to eat well, show up and pump (even explained how to get a hospital-grade pump on loan from WIC) it could mean the difference between life and death.  Two of the NICU nurses told me to not let him make me "feel bad", and that recovering from the c-section would make it awful hard to try to produce for twins, but I'm beyond glad that I listened now.  The twins didn't have a single "preemie" problem, and caught up with term babies in less than 8 weeks.  A lot of that is luck, I know, but the statistics bear out the doctor's advice.

I nursed the twins as long as I could (at 8 months I got a bad virus and got too dehydrated to produce, and they never came back to nurse), and with the two girls I had later, I came at nursing with a great attitude--after all I'd nursed twins, how hard could it be to nurse one?  

It isn't always easy to nurse, and there were certainly times when I just needed the time off when my girls were babies and I had older kids to tend to, so I would ask my husband to fix a bottle.  I don't think formula is poisin and wouldn't dream of telling a stranger to stop bottlefeeding --that's just about manners!  Who does that?!

Of course, my mother, and all my aunts in my "redneck+mexican" clan nursed, and I was six before I realized that the term "titty baby" was not to be used in polite company--as in "No, baby Monica can't have juice yet; she's still a titty baby"

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I posted about this on my blog, but really, you said it all! dou-la-la.blogspot.com/.../backlash-next-generation.html

To Rebecca, my heart goes out to you, I know firsthand how difficult it can be. I'm sorry that you were made to feel like a failure.  But I definitely don't think the answer is to not continue to advocate for breastfeeding. I just hope we can do so in a way that isn't insensitive to moms in your position, a position I very nearly found myself in as well.

Great post.  When I was in the hospital after giving birth to my second daughter the night nurse told me that if my 'milk didn't come in I would have to supplement later in her shift.'  This was EIGHT hours after I had given birth and my baby was nursing the colostrum just fine.  I essentially told her not to come back and she didn't.  But what if that would have been a first time mom, exhausted and hormonal and feeling overwhelmed?  Supplementing that early MIGHT really have interfered with successful breastfeeding.  So many women (without me even asking) tell me they 'didn't produce enough milk' and I wonder if they think this because of nurses like the one I had?  Or other unsupportive health professionals and uneducated family members.  If you even mention this on a message board you get really pissed off replies it seems. I don't get all upset when someone talks about the increased rate of C-section because of the 'medical industy'!  I agree totally that I wonder if my first baby would have been a vaginal birth if I had been in a different setting with a different caregiver.  And I used the info to push for a successful VBAC.

Where I live not that many women breastfeed.  I RARELY see women doing it in public so advocates are still really needed IMO.

I agree that in the whole parenting world there are kind of 'bully know it alls' but we can't judge all breastfeeding advocates for this.

Wow, that was long.  I think your point about all the availability of breastfeeding resources was an excellent one.  I have read about 4 books, visited my local LLL, and consulted with my OB and pediatrician and many Lactation Consultants.  And it is SUPER that I have access to all of that, even in my small town.  We have much to be thankful for.

For me, the conclusion of all those people is that I have a low supply problem.  Tears have been shed, pumps have been pumped, Supplemental Nursing Systems have been bonded with, fenugreek has been taken (I smell like maple syrup).  But I will never be able to exclusively breastfeed.  With my 1st I didn't get this useful information, so after the nurse, supplement, pump, cry cycle, I quit after 10 days feeling like a failure.  The LC's would not acknowledge that there might be a problem.  "Just keep trying" was their mantra.

With #2 thankfully I found better LC's, we took a scientific approach that they paired with a lot of compassion, and got the real answer.  And now 1 month out I'm still nursing (he's getting the 1/2 oz I produce) and supplementing with formula.  If they hadn't realized I had a real problem, I would have quit a long time ago and felt sad about it all over again (coupled with my failed VBAC attempt, that would've been an emotional disaster).

There is much to be said for empathy.  And so, I will echo the point that the backlash isn't against breastfeeding.  The backlash is against those who make women feel guilty, and judge, and make assumptions. There are plenty who choose not to breastfeed as a lifestyle choice.  And it IS their choice.  Just as it's a choice to feed organic food, or make kids vegetarians, or let them have candy.  But there are also those of us who would love to breastfeed, and who have made great efforts, and cannot.  And we do not want to be judged.

I think it's very important that the resources you mentioned are available and honest about the known benefits of breastfeeding.  I just wish that women - mothers - would support each other despite the fact that we won't all parent the same way.  Breastfeeding is just one area where we're beating each other down instead of building each other up.

I really appreciate the analysis you offer here of the history of North American breastfeeding advocacy as a social movement.  Many lactivist-related events in the last few years have called to mind the saying, "First they ignore you; then they laugh at you; then they fight you; then you win."  I think this movement is somewhere between the "laughed at" and "fought against" stages, and the backlash you note is definitely part of this shift.  

The relationship between breastfeeding advocacy and feminist activism has never been entirely comfortable, but it is a fruitful tension that needs more attention from folks in both movements.  Feminist perspectives on women's health and human rights belong in breastfeeding work.  Breastfeeding rights and support belong in feminist activism.  I'm heartened to hear you describe La Leche League as a "seminal feminist health organization;" far too many of its participants, much less its critics, overlook or reject this aspect of its work and philosophy.  

Thanks for this thoughtful and thought-provoking post.  

I think you are absolutely right that we should be grateful to those who came before us for laying the groundwork.  Thank God breastfeeding is more accepted and everyone pretty much knows it's natural and healthy.

Maybe if we can get the zealots on either side to confront each other, not MOTHERS, things would be better.  The problem is, to confront a woman who has already made the decision on how to feed her child is pointless and mean, whichever decision she's made.  

I breastfed for 8 full months and supplemented with formula.  I'm glad that it was easier for me to do this than it would have been 10 or 15 years ago.  But there is still a long way to go.  It's very hard to be employed full time in America and be successful at breastfeeding.  I breastfed morning and night and pumped twice during the day and I felt guilty, stressed and exhausted the whole time for one reason or another.  But I would do it all again.

Great post, Katie. Very well written. My youngest is 4 months and teething, and we are having a very tough time getting through this while breastfeeding. I am comfortable, but she seems to be uncomfortable, latches on then pops off almost instantly. Any tips?

What I find intriguing about the debate is how the breastpump (and pumping itself) has gained so much cultural awareness. I read a comment on a friend's facebook this week that criticized women not for breastfeeding, but for not pumping before taking the baby out of the house--in her words, the mom could have "easily" pumped beforehand and spared the public the sight of her 'floppy' breasts.  The commenter seemed to acknowledge that breastmilk was the best food for babies--that was not in dispute.  The problem was the breasts themselves--women's bodies themselves.  

In Monday's episode of Weeds, it seemed to be taken for granted that Nancy made milk and fed her baby breastmilk, but the story revolved around pumping, not breastfeeding.  Another character fed the baby expressed milk at 2am while she pumped. (As a mom who had no choice but to wake up every 2 hours and pump while my baby was in the NICU, I find this idea of pumping instead of feeding your actual baby baffling.)  Breastfeeding--and breasts themselves--were fetishized in the show when she "fed" her adult male friend in an attempt to relieve engorgement (when her pump broke, of course). Men and pumps can suck on breasts, but not babies.  It seemed to be taken for granted that she "breastfeeds", but there was no actual breastfeeding.  It was the pump and bottle which fed--her breasts were still sexualized objects.

Breastmilk may now be acknowledged as the ideal food, but it apparently still needs to be extracted by technology in order to be acceptable.  The breastpump (which has become quite an industry over the last 10 years, as well) now substitutes for the breast itself.  Pumping isn't just for work-out-of-home moms anymore, it's the new ideal!  You can get all the benefits of breastmilk without the icky breastfeeding.

[For what it's worth, my insurance company would not pay for my hospital grade pump while my baby was in the NICU, nor would it pay for donated milk when I couldn't make enough, nor would it pay for the hypoallergenic formula my sick infant required when I couldn't make enough milk and he had reactions to regular formulas. This was 2002, not even 1991!]

Thanks so much for this!!  I am sharing it with everyone I can think of.  I especially shared it with the LLLLeaders that were such a HUGE support to me, almost eleven years ago, when I had my first child.  I now have 9.5 YEARS combined, breastfeeding, under my belt and am still going.  It truly is amazing to see the difference just a few years can make.  I am proud to be one of the "zealots."  I've had one of my sons called a, "titty baby."  I've been called a, "breastfeeding nazi."  And I proudly wear the label, "one of THOSE moms."  

The guilt comment Jessica made got to me.  If you were to go to your OBGYN and tell him that you were smoking a pack a day- should he not inform you of the dangers of your choice just because you may feel guilty about it later?  Everyone has the right to choose what is best for themselves and their babies- but doctors should be able to inform mothers of the risks of their choices without fear of being too harsh or making someone feel guilty.  

Like Rebecca's experience, I was tormented and belittled by other moms who had determined I hadn't "tried hard enough" and needed to hear exactly what I'd done wrong. I got sick of explaining myself. I shouldn't have had to explain myself to anyone! But I did because they made me feel like a failure and a horrible mom. I wrote a Breasfeeding Week post here where I  talk about my experiences: www.cutestkidever.org/.../1257

I'm over the guilt now. I started an online support group for Formula Feeders on LiveJournal. What gets me is that when one group of moms is feeling oppressed in any way, they strike out at the group of moms who made the different choice. Me? I think that as long as a baby is getting fed, isn't neglected, and isn't abused, we should all be content to leave each mom to her own mothering.

Yeah, breastfeeding is great for babies. No, my body wouldn't make it work. But I don't want to be making an excuse for myself. Because that implies that I'm judging moms who made the choice to bottle feed - not out of necessity. And I don't want to judge anyone the way I was judged at that fragile time in my life.

I support the "breastfeeding zealots" who advocate for better acceptance of breastfeeding and the accompanying policy-making. I condemn the "Boob Nazis" who feel the need to berate and belittle women who can't or don't breastfeed for whatever reason.

Katie - Thank you for suggesting donations to milk banks!!  

These donations - whether donor milk or monetary - really do save the lives of premature infants whose mothers are not able to produce an adequate supply milk.  

As the mom of a premature baby and as a milk donor, I appreciate your support of milk banking.  Education and awareness are the first steps to saving lives within this very fragile population of infants.

A lot of mothers say they "couldn't" breastfeed, and I do think that there are instances where they truly can't.  But I think most of the time it's misinformation and the overwhelming responsibility of nursing that stops most mothers.  Moms get this "scary" information that their baby has lost weight and that they must get it back up. It can take up to a week for milk to come in!  So then they're up every hour, trying to feed this newborn, and they tired and overwhelmed.  They give the baby a bottle, and all seems well. Oh, it must have been because they weren't producing enough.  Yes, I know women who didn't produce enough, but that comes from at least a few weeks of nursing to figure that out.

The hardest thing for me to learn with breastfeeding was that I was completely responsible for the feeding of this child.  I was sore from a traumatic birth (sunny side up baby), I was so engorged I leaked constantly, and I had mastitis by day 8.  The sheer overwhelming thought of being personally responsible for feeding a newborn on top of all the other emotions I was feeling, was just about too much.

Luckily, I had a doula.  And she told me to wait for six weeks before quitting.  I made it that six weeks, then I decided I could make it to six months.  Then I made it to a year.  And I quit at 18 months.  If you had seen me when I first starting breastfeeding, you would have never believed I could have made it that long.  AND I did it all while struggling with making too much milk (hyperprolactenemia).

My point with this is I think we have a society that doesn't really fit with breastfeeding.  Breastfeeding takes time, and we are always in a rush.  Society doesn't have the patience to teach mothers how to breastfeed correctly, the mothers have no tools and resources readily available...even most of our own mothers didn't breastfeed!  We expect moms to be supermoms.  We're supposed to cook, clean, work, AND breastfeed all very quickly after giving birth.  For close to 8 or 9 weeks after I had my first son, I calculated that I was nursing for about 8 hours a day!  That's a full time job in itself.  Bottles, on the other hand, are easy, quick, and convenient, and mom or dad can do them.  When you have a woman who used to be a high powered working woman, and she has a baby and is expected to sit for anywhere from 6 to 9 hours a day and feed a baby, the responsibility of it is sometimes too much to bear. Before kids I was a teacher, constantly on the move, ready to go.  And then all of the sudden, my identity changed, my life stopped, and all I did was feed this child.  And I didn't really know how to do it, and it was taking so long....it was so, so hard.  For me, breastfeeding my first son was the hardest and most rewarding thing I've ever done in my life.  When a pregnant woman asks me about breastfeeding, that is what I tell her.  I'm very honest about the difficulty, the responsibilty, and the sheer joy and empowerment that comes with knowing that all the growth of your child has come from you.

My hope is that our society learns to let women slow down and take the time to breastfeed.  Better healthcare, more lactation consultants, home visits for several weeks after birth are all things that would give women the tools to know that they CAN breastfeed successfully.

@Steph S "Breastmilk may now be acknowledged as the ideal food, but it apparently still needs to be extracted by technology in order to be acceptable." Yes, yes, yes!  

@Beth, I LOVE and completely agree with your post. I would only add that, for breastfeeding to be truly successful in the US, extended paid maternity leave has to be implemented. I hope it's only a matter of time...

Thanks for another great read, Katie!

you need to update your readings of feminism. Second-wave feminism is harshly criticized these days by us "feminists" as participating in the inverse of the masculine discourse. Get out of the late 1970s. Question categories, not create them.

Wow!

That is an amazing piece of writing - I am currently studying to become a breastfeeding counsellor with the NCT and have saved this for my file and future references.

Emma xxx

This is something I encountered unexpectedly last December. My MIL came with me to the Facebook nurse-in because she was a bit of a lactivist in her day (breastfed late 70s, early 80s). I mentioned we don't buy Nestle product and she asked, "Is that still going on?" She was surprised that we're still working on formula advertising issues today. I was surprised that she had been that involved that she was a part of it. It was just interesting to me- two generations of lactivists fighting for different and yet the same things. She also raised a wonderful lactivist husband for me. :)

This article offers a great historical perspective! It reminds me how much I took for granted and how very lucky I am that the women in my family all breastfed due to cultural and economic forces - so that by the time I came along and had my daughter in 1996 it was something I took for granted.

In 1943, my rural grandmother nursed her niece as well as her own baby - she was born the week after my mother - since her sister was having trouble nursing. My mother breastfed me for ~2 years (I was born in 1968) and just laughed off the doctors who warned her that I would starve. It's fortunate I was a very chubby baby so those warnings seemed ridiculous.

The bottom line with a lot of breastfeeding issues, IMO, has to do with privilege. As long as so many American women do not have access to long-term paid maternity leave and high-quality healthcare and information the pro-breastfeeding movement will appear preachy and out of touch with reality. We need to look at other developed nations where breastfeeding rates approach 100% and model our efforts after theirs. Reforms that are good for babies will end up benefitting all of us.

Katie, I'm not sure what your we/they dichotomy is so, no, I guess what you're saying doesn't make sense.  I appreciate the better information that we all have in this generation than in those past (and how in large part that is due to La Leche Leaguers and the like -- my mother included), but also think that there's a huge middle ground of people like myself who don't fall in the "we" or "they"... And who don't appreciate the zealotry in any case.  

>I was hospitalized and separated from my newborn for several days because I had...MASTITIS.  And this was in 1991, not 1951.<

So substitute out 1991 for 2007 and that was my experience. (Perhaps more education is needed in this area after all.)

But to comment on this piece as a whole, as all good writing tends to do, I went through several different emotions reading this. I was angry, upset, hurt, excited, smug, etc. I'm glad I powered through the beginning as I felt there was a slight acussatory tone at us "new moms." But as I read further I think I got what you are saying: I get to benefit from earlier fights so should appreciate what those fights meant to women in general. And I think you're right--those doors breaking down need to be appreciated.

However, I also agree that until we stop pointing our fingers at each other for individual choices and instead work towards a family-accepting culture (in all of its conotations), the two extremes will continue to fight each other and people will quickly forget that the fact that we have a choice at all is to be celebrated. And that is sad for everyone.

@Mary, please don't compare the health consequences of not breastfeeding to those of smoking. Last time I checked, formula didn't kill babies. (When prepared with clean water in parts of the world with adequate sanitation, blah blah blah disclaimer.)

I 100% agree that we all owe a debt to the activists and "zealots" who made it possible for all of us today to have access to quality breastfeeding information and assistance. But there is a difference between advocating for better breastfeeding support and, say, recommending that someone throw away the free formula samples she got at the hospital rather than donating them to a women's shelter or food bank, because you wouldn't want those poor naive women to use that free formula as an excuse not to nurse. (Actual discussion I read on MDC, with the majority of respondents in favor of throwing away food instead of donating to someone in need.) There is a difference between fighting the manipulative marketing tactics of formula companies and refusing to let a pumping mom advertise her pumping supplies for sale (tamingestella.wordpress.com/.../mothering-magazine-an-insult-to-epers).

And of course, there is a difference between calling out a few rude isolated examples and tarring every breastfeeding advocate with the same brush. A little perspective and kindness is called for on both sides, I think.

Great point re: 20-something young women who know nothing of the history of the feminist movement. They can't imagine a time when they wouldn't have the opportunities they have now. The whole concept of feminism has been derided as well by the media, and there is such a broad spectrum of what is considered feminist today that I wonder if the coming generation will have any concept of the struggles that occurred, to their benefit.

Well-written post!  

Bravo Katie! I'm going to link to this on my blog and on Fb.  Honestly, I never really thought about it all that way -- WHAT WE DID -- but damn, we really did do something, didn't we?

Movements need radicals to move the center.  ACT UP was that for HIV/AIDS (remember when we couldn't even say "condom" on TV, when Reagan wouldn't even say "AIDS" while thousands of young men died?  But ACT UP moved the center -- pissing off a lot of folks in the meantime, including a lot of folks in the center -- but think where we'd be if there were no ACT UP? (and they did that all without an internet, think of that!)

So yeah, folks sure can have short attention spans.  I'm glad you're still such an eloquent voice reminding us of where we've come from and still need to go.

Hi

After analyzing data on lactation and breast cancer risk, the researchers said that the evidence is now "convincing" that breastfeeding lowers the risk of both pre-menopausal and post- menopausal breast cancer. Thank you for sharing this article, this is very informative.

Wonderful article.  I really enjoyed it - it s interesting to read the perspective of someone who has been involved in breastfeeding activism over such a long time.  Thanks!

GREAT article, and so true!

When my first baby was born in 1998 I bought a Medela Pump in Style so that I could continue to feed her breastmilk after I went to work.  It wasn't until just recently that I learned that this pump had only come to market a year or two prior to my purchase!  Without it, I doubt I could have met my goal of nursing my baby for a year (I nursed her for 14.5 months actually) with no use of formula--even though I had an over-supply of milk.  

I am proud to have been able to fully breastfeed all 5 of my childen, not using a drop of formula...and I think that many mothers now just don't realize how radically things have changed in the past decade to 15 years.