I have not seen any research on this, but I agree with Diane: it 
seems to me that later children generally nurse longer than the 
firstborn, with the last child often nursing the longest.  In fact, 
when this *doesn't* happen, it is unusual enough that I notice it and 
am suprised.

On a tangential note, I think that birth spacing probably has an 
effect on duration of breastfeeding for each child.  When children 
are spaced farther apart, there is room for a biologically normal 
duration of breastfeeding without pressure to wean (intrinsic or 
extrinsic) due to a pregnancy / subsequent sibling.

It would be interesting to look at whether the birth-order-based 
duration of nursing varies depending on birth spacing.  Maybe 
firstborns tend to nurse longest under one scenario and lastborns 
longest under another scenario.

Margaret
Longmont, CO


>Dia -
>
>I will be *utterly amazed* if there's research showing that 
>firstborns are nursed longer.  I'm sure they get more "intellectual 
>attention," just because they're a novelty and there are fewer 
>parental distractions, but in almost all the families I've known - 
>through family, friendships, and LLL - breastfeeding is influenced 
>more by mainstream cultural voices the first time, but less with 
>each subsequent child as we realize that the mainstream culture 
>doesn't know what it's talking about.  Has that been others' 
>experience? 
>
>Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY  USA
>www.wiessinger.baka.com
>

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