What's "uncommon"? It certainly wouldn't have been that common either, considering that a "well-to-do" child would have come from a group that represented less than 5% of the population.>>>
I am glad you chimed in because this is what I was thinking as well. I'm not nearly as studied in history as yourself, but it was my impression that aristocrats and wealthy citizens have always comprised a small minority of total populations.
But with the right information and support, she just might be able to rise to the occasion - but you wouldn't know if you didn't even give her the chance? No, some won't be able to do it, but there are some whose lives were nothing but turmoil, who have a baby and with the right support have been able to turn their lives around - once they realized this little life was totally dependant on them. I think it would be better to help her get there, then just assume she could not.>>>>>>>>
I could not agree more. My Dad wasn't so great a parent when I was a kid, honestly. I didn't talk to him from the time I was 11 until I was 20. In those years, he found a new wife and had to learn to raise my stepsisters. Now, I visit him quite frequently and he is a great parent (still kinda tough, admittedly) and a really wonderful grandparent. I'm just saying, yeah, people can change, they can do better and it certainly isn't going to hurt to try to support that sort of growth.
So, we have lost the art of breastfeeding in part because of the creation of formula, and now generations of women have not breastfed and are not equipped to help female family members when they hit issues. They end up recommending formula. But another large part of the problem stems from the fact that we live in these little nuclear family units, often far from relatives, with no extended family around to help even if they DID have the right advice and knowledge. >>>>
I think the presumption that everyone could and did bf'd (including the non-rich) in history misses the fact that there used to be very high mortality rates among infants.>>>
Are you concluding that the high mortality rates were laregely due to BFing issues?
I get that, but one is much, much, much more extreme and who's to say the mom in that example would be "happy" committing her teen to an institution? Would it really have made that mom "happy"?>>>
Does not breastfeeding make a mother happy? Or does it merely keep her from unhappiness? It isn't the same thing, and I think in the analogy made, it also is not the same thing.
>>>>You're using medieval Europe and contemporary developing nations as a way to explain the habits, preferences and needs of American women. There are so many things inherently wrong with your assumptions that I could write a doctoral dissertation about them.<<<<
The only assertion I was countering was that the human race would not have survived if today's bf'ing problems were real, so the breastfeeding issues must be a new creation that came along with popular formula use.
Well according to my reading (I've done some research on nursing in medieval/renaissance periods) it wasn't uncommon. I can't say HOW common it was because we don't have people out taking polls, etc to find out what percentage of mother's do this or that.
Would it be most likely a poor woman would nurse her own child? Abosultely.
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What's "uncommon"? It certainly wouldn't have been that common either, considering that a "well-to-do" child would have come from a group that represented less than 5% of the population.>>>
I am glad you chimed in because this is what I was thinking as well. I'm not nearly as studied in history as yourself, but it was my impression that aristocrats and wealthy citizens have always comprised a small minority of total populations.
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But with the right information and support, she just might be able to rise to the occasion - but you wouldn't know if you didn't even give her the chance? No, some won't be able to do it, but there are some whose lives were nothing but turmoil, who have a baby and with the right support have been able to turn their lives around - once they realized this little life was totally dependant on them. I think it would be better to help her get there, then just assume she could not.>>>>>>>>
I could not agree more. My Dad wasn't so great a parent when I was a kid, honestly. I didn't talk to him from the time I was 11 until I was 20. In those years, he found a new wife and had to learn to raise my stepsisters. Now, I visit him quite frequently and he is a great parent (still kinda tough, admittedly) and a really wonderful grandparent. I'm just saying, yeah, people can change, they can do better and it certainly isn't going to hurt to try to support that sort of growth.
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So, we have lost the art of breastfeeding in part because of the creation of formula, and now generations of women have not breastfed and are not equipped to help female family members when they hit issues. They end up recommending formula. But another large part of the problem stems from the fact that we live in these little nuclear family units, often far from relatives, with no extended family around to help even if they DID have the right advice and knowledge. >>>>
Exactly.
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I think the presumption that everyone could and did bf'd (including the non-rich) in history misses the fact that there used to be very high mortality rates among infants.>>>
Are you concluding that the high mortality rates were laregely due to BFing issues?
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I get that, but one is much, much, much more extreme and who's to say the mom in that example would be "happy" committing her teen to an institution? Would it really have made that mom "happy"?>>>
Does not breastfeeding make a mother happy? Or does it merely keep her from unhappiness? It isn't the same thing, and I think in the analogy made, it also is not the same thing.
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>>>>You're using medieval Europe and contemporary developing nations as a way to explain the habits, preferences and needs of American women. There are so many things inherently wrong with your assumptions that I could write a doctoral dissertation about them.<<<<
The only assertion I was countering was that the human race would not have survived if today's bf'ing problems were real, so the breastfeeding issues must be a new creation that came along with popular formula use.
Malcolm Gladwell Blink
Malcolm Gladwell Blink
I am honestly not sure of your point here.
Well according to my reading (I've done some research on nursing in medieval/renaissance periods) it wasn't uncommon. I can't say HOW common it was because we don't have people out taking polls, etc to find out what percentage of mother's do this or that.
Would it be most likely a poor woman would nurse her own child? Abosultely.
I donated my freezer stash of EBM to another mom through
* Milk Share *
>>>>Every ounce of my being was telling me to put my baby to
Malcolm Gladwell Blink
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