IMO its worth defending your methods to the nurse. After all she's only human and if no-one ever tells that they get great results from gentle methods and her training has all been tresillian style then she's never going to know anything else. I really can't remember where I read it (maybe it was BB lol) but awhile ago I saw an article about extended breast feeding (I think...) - about all I remember of the article was someone saying that attachment parenting was really underground in Australia - that women who breastfeed past a year etc. often keep it on the hush-hush. I think that its really sad that the parenting culture of Australia has become such that women keep it secret if we co-sleep or feed for an extended period. I know that I often don't mention co-sleeping because I don't want to deal with the negativity. Maybe we should all make more of an effort to be 'out' about the way we parent and maybe then nurses etc will be more ready to recommend gentle parenting.
I'm not sure if I answered your question at all or just had a bit of a rant.......