Dear all:

Quite frankly, I see the pump as a modern day equivalent of an intervention that women have used 
down through the millenium --- the wet nurse and/or baby swapping.  This still exists in many 
cultures.  In many cultures, women gathered together in cooperative groups and shared 
responsibilities, often in kinship groups and sometimes as cowives in polygamous societies.  I saw 
a fair amount of specialization of talents among the mothers who befriended me when I was a 
young woman (and not really considered an adult since I hadn't had a child) in what was then 
Zaire.  

I find that we all tend to rely on a post-industrial revolution model of mothering, which is one 
mother one child.  Perhaps some anthropologists can correct me on this, but I think for much of 
human history the norm has been mothering within groups of women with shared responsibilities.  
Thus, in our so-called "modern" societies individual women get all the responsibility and all the 
blame with little help.  

The one disadvantage of using a pump over the wetnurse is that the pump doesn't snuggle the 
baby close.  However, I cannot imagine how one would set up a working relationship between 
mothers and wetnurses given that even establishing a working relationship with substitute 
"caregivers" is so fraught with mistrust on both sides.  Can you imagine the screening process that 
a wet nurse would have to go through in the United States?  The reason why our current 
relationships with caregivers are more fraught with anxiety (not that we don't sometimes have 
anxiety with relatives as well) is that they are not part of our kinship group and thus, we may not 
be sure of their investment in care of our children.

I'm drifting back to those pet nurses - genetically tailored to meet moms needs!  I'm just waiting 
for the next NY Times Sunday section to say that somebody came up with the glow in the dark 
version of a pet nurse.

Best, Susan Burger

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