Teresa's speculation about one of the reasons -- let's see if I can do
this, Teresa -- that frequent breastfeeding is biologically normal is
that

> perhaps more stimulation of the brain
> in
> the process of coming to the breast repeatedly;
>
I remember being struck that a baby's vision is clearest at that
distance between the breast and the mother's eye, and then reading about
the importance of the gaze. I wonder if the memory span of a baby is
about as long as the period between nursing? Then a baby would truly
nurse whenever s/he remembered to do so. It makes sense, and I kind of
like the idea.
I, too, really liked Kathy D's post. It particularly reminded me of a
visit to a friend's place with tiny twins. A mother who had breastfed
her children twenty years before, she asked, "Why didn't I hear them in
the next room? Surely they're not sleeping through the night yet!" I
realized that, just as in a story Teresa once told at a conference about
a breastfed baby with heart problems, that they had never really cried
at night. (Not like my toddler, who no longer remembers how to
cuddle-to-sleep-nurse -- boredom-nurse, cranky-nurse, lie-in-nurse, yes,
but not back-to-sleep nurse... any suggestions?)
Jo-Anne

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html