I have just read this paper (on-line in pre-publication form): Scavenius M, van Hulsel L, Meijer J, Wendte H, Gurgel R. In practice, the theory is different: A processual analysis of breastfeeding in northeast Brazil. Soc Sci Med. 2006 Oct 27 This is an exciting study which dissects the particular situation in Brazil to examine the understandings of women who are breastfeeding and investigates 'insufficient milk' in a nuanced, bio-psychosocial way. The authors suggest that the understanding of women who breastfeed exclusively is that of breastfeeding as a process, while they demonstrate that de-breastfeeding (their term -- brilliant) is also processual and that insufficient milk is the end stage. If you are thinking there is a familiarity to this, it is built on the analysis of Penny van Esterik, sadly neglected, imo. These findings resonate not only with my own understandings but also with my own ethnographic work (and that of a few others) here in the UK, obviously the cultural context will change many things, but the underlying theories in this paper may be very helpful in understanding what is going on (huge effort then needed to translate to clinical practice or public health practice). Magda Sachs *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET email list is powered by LISTSERV (R). There is only one LISTSERV. To learn more, visit: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html