This sounds like some of the traditions I saw, in Germany (not about
breastfeeding) where the local people were amazed that Americans questioned
something that had been accepted for centuries, but apparently no one knew
when they even got started. I wonder if telling anyone about what happens
in other parts of the world, with adopted babies, might at least help
encourage some people to think about the tradition of thinking that
relactation might in some way be harmful. We see babies who have come to
their new mothers not only as older babies, but as children several years
old, and see them blossom from it! Of course, there are still cultures in
the world where it is not even considered remarkable for a woman to
relactate for a child she did not give birth to, and where access to
breastfeeding is what gives the child a chance for life. I even know of a
Kenyan baby girl who was found abandoned at a garbage dump, found by a
mother who took her home and nursed her, and she did very well!
There used to be a tradition, in the USA, that said that breastfeeding was
important, and criticised any woman who refused to nurse her baby, but only
for the first nine months. The belief was that, when a baby turned nine
months old, breastfeeding suddenly became harmful! I don't know how widely
accepted that was, but it is in some books written by an American MD in the
1890s.
Maybe Karleen knows of something in the literature that might encourage some
of the people you work with to question the idea that relactation can be
harmful.
Darillyn
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