Hi,
In the discussion about epidurals, trusting our bodies and what's normal, I
think that we can be thinking about what the real biological norm is here.   My
understanding is that the "true" (if you will) with norm would be that a
young woman would have become pregnant soon after menarche and cycled through
pregnancies and breastfeeding with few periods until she reached menopause.  Women
were not meant to have menstrual cycles for 20 to 25 years.  If they were
genetically predisposed to viable pregnancies, well-nourished, free from disease
and sexually active, they probably didn't have more than a few periods their
entire lives.  We have given up that "biological norm" when we started having
fewer children and breastfeeding them less.
And, yes, periods are inconvenient and messy and sometimes debilitating if
you have cramps or are continually fighting anemia due to heavy blood loss.
So, we have to live with this new biological model that we have come up with.
 Only women in the past who were able to conceive, able to give birth
successfully, and able to breastfeed passed on their genes, hence through natural
selection keeping the gene pool healthy enough to continue the species.  We now
have medical interventions that give women who would perhaps have died in
childbirth or had a child that was not viable the ability to pass their genes on.
(and don't get me wrong-- I think that is a good thing!)  But it has a ripple
effect-- perhaps causing more medical interventions as the gene pool changes,
and cultural expectations change.
Again, we, as breastfeeding advocates are trying to reinsert a biological
norm- i.e., breastfeeding back into a world that is very, very far from that norm
in so many ways (from having fewer children, to medicalized births, to
mothers who cannot be with their babies full time, to preemies who certainly would
not have lived to breastfeed at all in the past)!  What an uphill climb we
have!   Breastfeeding in a brave new world!
And as I think about how hard we are working to help moms to reclaim this
part of their biological heritage, I think that we are a pretty brave bunch!
Tchuess,
Merilee Reeder

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