I regularly attend La Leche League meetings, and I breastfed my daughter until age 2 and a half, and I agree with what you say. One of the reasons I attend La Leche League meetings is to be the "bad mommy" there - the mother who works, and so can give you advice about pumping, navigating a hostile work environment for pumping, dealing with caregivers who are squeamish about breast milk, etc.; who can help with advice on getting the baby to sleep better because when you have a full-time job, napping when the baby naps is not an option, and you do have to be relatively awake to function at work; to be the one who says, "well, that's not my experience" when the standard La Leche League comments about natural mothering instincts are trotted out (I happen to have a husband who is far more nurturing by nature than I am).
On the other hand, I think that it's possible that because of the cultural niche you live in, you see the ugly pro-breastfeeding people and don't see the ugly anti-breastfeeding people. Who I am afraid are a far greater percentage of the population as a whole - the "that's disgusting" people, the "it's unnatural (in a sexual way) to nurse beyond 3 months" people, the "it's antifeminist to tie yourself to a child" people. A lot of women stop breastfeeding at 3 or 6 months or a year, or never start, not because they have trouble nursing, but because they are made to feel it's wrong or weird to begin or continue, or their job doesn't allow them time to pump enough to keep their supply up (i.e. my friend the labor and delivery nurse who works 12 hour shifts without reliable breaks, let alone most low-income workers - could you pump in a Wal-Mart break room? What if you had no paid maternity leave and needed to go back to work 3 weeks after your baby was born, before breastfeeding was really established?).
I don't think the lactivist approach is the right way to change the US cultural attitudes against breastfeeding. It's very ill-conceived - it mostly reaches people who don't need to be convinced, and it turns off more of them than it turns on. Unfortunately the lactivist people are the only people promoting breastfeeding right now, and I do agree with them that breastfeeding is, when a choice on more or less equal terms is available, the better choice.
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On the other hand, I think that it's possible that because of the cultural niche you live in, you see the ugly pro-breastfeeding people and don't see the ugly anti-breastfeeding people. Who I am afraid are a far greater percentage of the population as a whole - the "that's disgusting" people, the "it's unnatural (in a sexual way) to nurse beyond 3 months" people, the "it's antifeminist to tie yourself to a child" people. A lot of women stop breastfeeding at 3 or 6 months or a year, or never start, not because they have trouble nursing, but because they are made to feel it's wrong or weird to begin or continue, or their job doesn't allow them time to pump enough to keep their supply up (i.e. my friend the labor and delivery nurse who works 12 hour shifts without reliable breaks, let alone most low-income workers - could you pump in a Wal-Mart break room? What if you had no paid maternity leave and needed to go back to work 3 weeks after your baby was born, before breastfeeding was really established?).
I don't think the lactivist approach is the right way to change the US cultural attitudes against breastfeeding. It's very ill-conceived - it mostly reaches people who don't need to be convinced, and it turns off more of them than it turns on. Unfortunately the lactivist people are the only people promoting breastfeeding right now, and I do agree with them that breastfeeding is, when a choice on more or less equal terms is available, the better choice.