[net.women] Breast feeding in "highly civilized" countries

robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) (03/27/84)

Unfortunately, our society has set up many cues to encourage bottle feeding.
Women who wish to be mobile can rely on bottle feeding early
in the child's life.  This allows the child to be fed by others
when the mother is not available.  In this country, wet nurses are
uncommon, and bottle feeding is acceptable in many social situations
where breast feeding is not.

A nursing mother must continue to eat food for two, and to be more careful
about the intake of medicine, drugs, alcohol, etc.  Many doctors and
nurses are still quick to recommend an end to nursing when any maternal
problems arise.

I think that mothers wishing to breastfeed find less incentive to stop
than they did twenty years ago.  But until the practice becomes more common
in every aspect of society, it will be a hard practice to maintain,
especially in children more than a few months old.
					- Toby Robison
					allegra!eosp1!robison
					decvax!ittvax!eosp1!robison
					princeton!eosp1!robison