Hi - I've been lurking and learning for a week or so. Thanks everyone for the insights. I have three ch, and am convinced of the power of human milk. I loved the 'kindness of human milk' slogan ! I read the post about the 'Myths of Motherhood' book in LACTNET 1 Feb and I wondered if it was anything to do with a book called 'The Myth of Motherhood, An Historical View of the Maternal Instinct' by Elizabeth Badinter. This copy I have is pub. by SOUVENIR Press (E&A) Ltd, 1981, ISBN 0 285 64942 6, printed in USA. Maybe she referenced it ? It is fascinating to realise that it does not seem to be an instinct to breastfeed in spite of the baby having the instincts to suckle. Did you hear about the experiment on rhesus monkeys with the cloth mother and the wire mother ? I have a copy of 'The Science of Animal Behaviour' by P.L. Broadhurst, pub Penguin books 1963. Basically, what they did was take newborn monkeys and put them in a cage with a wire frame holding the bottle, and a cloth model with a 'face'. The monkeys did their best to cling to the cloth model as much as they could, and only going to the wire frame when they had to. Now this may have been because they were originally tree-dwelling monkeys. Instinct may have said 'hold on, or you'll not survive'. But wait for it - when they became adult, they were hopeless at being parents. Even when paired with an experienced partner they still had no idea....This seems to imply that something important comes out of being mothered. It would be interesting to see a survey of several generations; it may be more unusual for a woman who was af to bf her own baby ? FYI, my mum's mum bf for weeks, my mum for months, and I bf two of mine for years ! I have to credit my mum for what she achieved - I had the support of LLL, she didn't ! Helena Boutal