Willow & Bel, originally uploaded by The Department.

In Touchingly Naive, Maia examines the connection between breastfeeding and sexuality -- and why that seems like such a scary idea to some people.

She writes,

    The mistake is a wider one, in the idea that a connection between breastfeeding and sexuality means that breastfeeding your baby is like having sex with your children.

    The reality is that breastfeeding is normal, natural and healthy, and that breastfeeding is connected with sexuality. That's OK. This connection is itself normal, natural and healthy. It is not an equation of breastfeeding with sex. It is not about getting turned on by our babies. It is about a sensuality that is related to, but very clearly distinct from, the sex we have with our partners.

I don't think it's true, however, that breastfeeding advocates try to downplay the connection.  At least in the U.S., many midwives I've spoken to not only acknowledge it, they encourage the connection. (Midwives may nit be the same population as the breastfeeding adbovztes Maia means,a lthough most midwives here do counsel about breastfeeding as well.)