Marie,

Your comment below.......

>What a wonderful story of mothers celebrating motherhood!! The true meaning
>of neighbor. And over a month of main meals. Wonderful!!
> Can any of us lactnetters imagine a network of caring like this in the US?

......has made me realize that I am living in a very special place with
very wonderful people, in a very family-oriented society.  Boy, was I
taking things for granted!

The culture + + +s far outweigh the drawbacks (i.e.the 'I'll do it ma=F1ana
syndrome', Male Machismo and subservient women's roles, deep rooted graft
and corruption).

Muchas gracias, Marie for opening my eyes to my good fortune.

Roberta

P.S. I just read Yaffa's posting about the Orthodox Jewish community's
unity and support stucture for new mother's. And that she has also learned
to take this wonderful social behavior for granted. We mustn't take
anything for granted! You taught me that.

P.P.S. Your posting re: your son's comment about animal mothers not abusing
their young reminded me of a study I either read about 100 yrs. ago, or at
least heard mention of when I first began learning more about BF besides my
own nursing experience.

Basically, it related the incidence of BF and child abuse....and the
results were that the longer children had been nursed, the less the
probability was that they would be subjected to real physical abuse. (Sure,
I yell at my kids like everyone else, but I don't *beat* them in the real
sense of the word)

To take this one step further, a study was done in prisons with the worse
of the inmates - highly aggressive types (need I mention their various and
sundry crimes?) and found that almost all of these poor souls had been
severly abused as children and/or teenagers.

Do you all realize what this means as far as the far-reaching influence
that long-term breastfeeding may mean to society as a whole?  Frightenly
frightening, no?  or is that Encouragingly encouraging.....comments?  (has
anyone recollections of having seen these studies?)

R