I distinctly remember hearing about a study done in the Caribbean about bf and child abuse (i.e. breastfed babies much much less likely to be abused) that was published in a book about the bigger health study, therefore sort of hidden from standard search engines. Surely I heard about this on LactNet? Anyone with a better memory than mine? > Ione Sims writes: This and decreased sexual interest at least in the >early postpartum were recurring themes that I heard about, especially >last year when I was a student nurse-midwife. And it is something that >is worrisome and upsetting to some women. I am curious what experiences >others might have had along this line, and also, Kathy D., if you have >any thoughts about this based on your knowledge of other cultures. Well, since in Mali breast play is not part of sex, this issue doesn't come up. I know I certainly got seriously touched out in general with each baby when they were little. I didn't even like hugs from friends. Certainly the hormones of lactation suppress the sex drive, but this is adaptive from an evolutionary perspective. Reproduction is energetically extremely costly to the woman (9 months of gestation, several years of nursing) and so she wants to make sure each child has the best possible chance of survival, which means not getting pregnant again too soon. Lactational amenorrhea helps with this, but so does a lower sex drive. I have one article on this at my office, but doubt I could find it if my life depended on it (ditto for the one saying that if you don't feed solids at a particular age then the child won't learn to eat properly -- which is quoted all the time with reference to general child development, when the study was based on, and probably therefore applicable only to, severely retarded children -- I'm still looking for that one!). Mothers are also usually exhausted when they have young infants, whether breastfeeding or not, and so don't want to have sex. In many cultures, there was a traditional post-partum sex taboo until the child walked, talked, was weaned, or some other fairly long-term developmental milestone. Must run. P.S. The book about the link between bra wearing and breast cancer is "Dressed to Kill" by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer, published by Avery Publishing. I have not seen it yet. Kathy D.