"But I think you are really naive and optimistic if you think that one can interrupt the breastfeeding relationship for one day or weekends every week and still do it." Whoever voiced this is ill informed. Of course it can be done. It is done by thiousands of women every day.

There is an entire chat group (pumpmoms.org), 1600 women strong at last count, who for various reasons, pump breast milk for their children. Some pump exclusively (baby can't or won't nurse due to medical conditions, oral aversion, etc), most pump while working and nurse when at with baby. A very few supplement with formula, but the vast majority at pumpmoms.org feed their babies 100% breast milk until their babies are ready to start solids.

I pumped round the clock with my first baby until she was 4 mos. She simply refused to nurse, despite several lactation consultants, OB's, and OB RN's trying to help. So, I pumped every 3 hours and fed her from a bottle. Then one day something clicked, and I was able to put the pump away until I started back at work, 2 days a week, when she was 10 mos. She drank from bottles when I was at work, and nursed when I was home. She fully weaned at 18 mos. (Now that she's a preschooler, I see her tenacity for doing it "my way!" even if that's impractical and difficult is a deep-rooted personality trait).

My second baby nursed right out of the gate, and didn't take a bottle until I went back to work, 2 days a week again, when she was 6 mos. She weaned completely at 2 years.

(Not that they were exclusively breastfed until they weaned. They started solids at 6 mos, cow and/or soy milk at 12 mos, and were eating "regular food" by 10-12 mos.)

Both my kids are healthy (in their combined 7 years, 3 ear infections, 2 bouts of barfing flu, a few colds.), happy, sharp as tacks an as energetic as puppies.

I know *dozens* of moms who work full time, and still nurse when they are home with their kids. I know a mom that pumped for 5 years round the clock, because her child had a congentital heart defect and severe oral aversion (from all the tubes placed in his throat for his surgeries). I know moms that pumped when they went away on business trips, or family emergency trips, and returned to continue nursing their children. I even know a mom or two who was able to nurse an adopted baby by pumping and taking natural galactagalogues until the baby came home, and then nursing the baby.

I may be an optimist, but I'm not naive.

Don't believe me? Look at the AAP, La Lache League, pumpingmoms, kellymom, or Dr. Jack Newman.

While I understand (and agree with) your plea for fairness, I disagree with how you apply it to nursing and working moms.

By your standard of fairness, I should be able to park in a handicapped parking space. Because it isn't fair that ambulatory me has to park farther to the grocery than someone in a wheel chair.

In terms of time off, I think maternity/patrernity leave is an excellent idea. I also think sick time can be more fairly distributed as "flex time" by both parents and non-parents. Parents will still need to leave to tend to emergencies with their children, or need to pick up kids when the daycare center closes. But non-parents have unforseen emergencies (car trouble, plumbing crises, emergencies with spouses, other family members, even pets). I'm sure it all evens out in the end.

Parenting, as you mention, is a choice. But so is not parenting (most of the time). By producing children, parents guarentee future workers and consumers, and generate huge demands for goods and services that non-parents do not. So, one could argue that the childless are opting out of these "extra benefits," or that the childless-by-choice are refusing to contribute to the future of this society by failing to produce offspring (not my viewpoint, but it's as reasonable as the "parents get extra benefits" argument).

Lastly, to return to pumping at work. Most lactating moms can pump in 15-20 inutes every 3-4 hours (some moms need more time, some need less, so it's an individually determined need, but 15 minutes is a good average). Most labor laws require breaks of that duration in hourly-wage employees. The time is already (on paper) given to employees. The only extra accomodation is a place to do the pumping and store the milk. This isn't an insurmountable hurdle in the vast majority of work spaces. Reasonable people working together can come to a resonable sloution.

It's the attitudes that need the most changing.

Ok, I failed to see the irony font. Consider yourself unbitten.

Calcareous,

Let me ask you (and this reasoning is solely for the sake of argument) about handicapped parking: yes, the wheelchair-bound may not hove woken up one day and said "I'd like to sever the nerves to my lower extremities," but ... they may chosen to drive too fast, to play a sport where they could be injured, to join the armed forces, whatever. Does that chanfe your thioughts on their "special" treatment? They *chose* to put themselves at risk, now why do they get a more convenient space as well?

Also, while having (or not having) children is a choice, it's hardly the same "choosing" as an ice cream flavor. My having kids does not lessen the quality of your life. And my caring for your kids by pumping breast milk at work does not lessen the quality of your salary and benefirs package.

But, if you want to hook a Lactina Select up to your nipples and vacuum suck them for 15 minutes a session to break up your work day, please feel free to do so. I don't recommend it, but ... it's your choice.