Don't most mammals eat their placentas?  I wonder if this is normal milk-making and hemorhage-protection mechanism.  I think many birds eat their egg shells, too.  
 
Sometimes I wonder if divorce is higher among adults who were CIO'd vs non-CIO'd or co-slept.  It would be hard to study, though.  Just a thought.
 
A couple stories about weaning and depression.  When my 2nd and 3rd children weaned, I definitely felt depression for about 3 weeks.  I just kept telling myself it was hormonal, and it would pass.  I don't believe it was sadness from that stage of life being over, but a chemical change going on in my brain.  When my 1st child weaned, I did not feel depression, but I was pregnant, so the pregnancy hormones could have been why.  
2nd story.  A friend of mine is bi-polar, and she had gone off lithium before getting pregnant.  She breastfed her daughter for 2.5 years, and only weaned then because her psychiatrist wanted her back on lithium.  She had been resisting it until then.  When she weaned her daughter, she fell into a major depressive episode, and the lithium didn't help her anymore.  
 
Julie Tardos
 
~~~
Breastfeed early, and breastfeed often.
It's just like voting.

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