Date: Thurs. Aug. 5
From: Rache Mateszl <[log in to unmask]
Subject: Deanna's question re: Population & Diet
Deanna says: Hey, why hasn't anyone mentioned the role that breastfeeding
(or the
lack thereof) has played? What about the decline in breastfeeding
(not only in this century, but in previous centuries as well) and its
impact on fertility and family size? Besides diet, what about the
average length of time that a !kung woman breastfeeds each child, and
its effect on child spacing? Not only do they engage in what
Westerners refer to as "extended" breastfeeding, but they also don't
limit its frequency as so-called "civilized" people do. What about
breastfeeding as "birth control" - has anyone heard of LAM (the
Lactational Amenorrhea Method)?
The books you mentioned sound interesting. I'll have to add them to my
reading list. We weren't saying that breastfeeding has nothing to do with
population and fertility. On the contrary it IS a dietary factor. ...it's
about the woman's diet and the babies diet. (It's a feature of the PWOL.
Don and I are avid proponents of intensive and longer-term breast feeding.
We recently published an article on the "Bonuses of Breast Feeding" in fact.
(I'll e-mail it to anyone who wants to read it. ) In it, we discuss the
dietary factors which can cause a women to produce TOO LITTLE milk; even
some over-fat women have this problem. We do our best to convince every
pregnant or post-partum mother to do it. Here's what we're up against (from
my article):
"Cultural influences have led women to sometimes see breast feeding as
a hardship. And even when women choose to nurse" ... "their husbands,
relatives, and friends may pressure them into early weaning because they are
socially uncomfortable seeing the child and the mother's breast together."
....women's breasts have become an object of sexual lust in our
culture, and thus, breast feeding is often viewed as socially unacceptable,
particularly when done in public. Breast feeding (or even pumping of milk)
in the workplace is generally frowned upon, or worse, met with violent
opposition....findings from a research review done by the Columbia Health
Department and Ohio State University. Oddly enough, the strongest and most
consistent factor influencing a womanıs decision to cease nursing her baby
was the babyıs father, or rather, the views of the father.!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Green with envy
Why would fathers discourage their partners from nursing? The reasons given
were as follows: 1) jealousy; 2) interference with sex; 3)the opinion that
nursing in unattractive and ³makes breasts ugly²; 4) a false belief that
formulas are better for baby. Apparently, some men feel they cannot bond
with their baby until s/he is weaned, so they avoid interacting with the
infant altogether. The authors of the article suggested that a special time
be set aside for father and baby to bond as well as time for the fathers to
learn how to care for babies. (Journal of the American Dietetic Association,
1997;97: 1, 311-13).
Amazing?
Rachel Matesz
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