Teresa Pitman reminisces about the crazy practices she was subjected to in 1977. Good thing your baby didn't know your nipples were unsuitable, eh? I was lucky in 1981 when my first child was born in Seattle - no restrictions on frequency or duration of breastfeeding, nor on contact between us except for 30 minutes in the early evening when visitors were let in and the babies were behind glass, to be seen but not touched. I left after two days because I didn't need to stay any longer and *I* was desperate for some real food myself. Imagine my chagrin on moving to Norway, becoming a midwife, and starting work in 1989 where staff were dutifully cautioning mothers not to feed more than 2 minutes on a side on day one, 4 minutes on day 2, etc. We even had this information in pamphlets, translated into all the languages we could imagine needing, which fortunately wasn't many in 1989. I'd all but forgotten this ridiculous stuff, but it strikes me now that the percentages of birth weight we are expected to put into babies who are deemed incapable of self-regulation from birth are somehow related - two percent of birth weight on day 1, four percent on day 2, six percent on day 3, and so on. We do stop at 16 percent here (not 'about 15 percent', noooo - 16, exactly) on day 8. What was the upper limit for duration of a feed according to this theory, Teresa? I will be astounded if it wasn't about 15 minutes. In fact, I still regularly hear from mothers who have been advised not to 'let' baby stay on one breast more than 20 minutes. A lot of the time they have also been cautioned not to let the baby stop feeding before at least 20 minutes. Doesn't leave much leeway for variation :-) Rachel Myr Kristiansand, Norway *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome