Because I am sure that there are new nursing mothers in this day and age who are just as clueless as I was back in the l940’s, I offer the following for whatever insights it may present.

Before La Leche League came into being, I was a nursing mother. And if that doesn’t sufficiently date me, consider the fact that the babies I was nursing at that time now have nursed their own babies. La Leche League, in the meantime, has grown from two groups to over thousands of groups internationally, and the swing back to breastfeeding is heartening to behold.

Studies have shown that the percentage of nursing mothers among college graduates is higher than among women with less education. It is the well-informed woman who is most aware of the physical and psychological advantages of breastfeeding. It is the smart woman who is in the vanguard of the movement back to breastfeeding.

But the nursing mother is not content to be smart; she wants to look smart! In the “olden days” when I decided to nurse my first baby I thought I was, as the same time, consigning myself to a monotonous succession of button-front or zipper-front dresses. I owned only one such dress, plus a couple of blouses that buttoned, so you can see how much I was prepared to suffer style-wise for the sake of my child. When I ordered the one variety of nursing bra that was offered in the Sears catalog, my nursing wardrobe was complete. Read the rest of this entry »