Dear all:

With this discussion on theology, I'm wondering if anyone is aware of a consolidated source on
quotes from religious texts that support breastfeeding.  I know when I worked in developing
countries, there were plenty of social marketing campaigns that revolved around quotes from the
Koran that supported breastfeeding.  In Manhattan, one is exposed to a huge variety of religions
and the degree to which people choose to observe the prescribed practices of their religions.

I've probably worked in more Muslim countries than Christian - so I know that there is a similar
phenomenon of the gap between what is written and how it is applied in Muslim cultures as
described in recent posting about the varying support of the Catholic Church over the ages.  My
one experience with the Catholic Church was when I taught in a Catholic high school in then Zaire
(now back to Congo).  The older nuns who worked in the clinic would regularly dispense birth
control pills and the priests would baptise children of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th wives.   One has to keep
in mind that any religion can be "observed" in various different ways.  The only real reading I did
on Muslim practices was "Women in Islamic Family Law" which illustrated how the Koran could be
interpreted in ways that were beneficial to women, but the interpretation of this law has been
modified according to cultural practices that predated the Koran.   That's about the extent of my
rudimentary reading.

I still have the urge to write to one author after my binge of reading The Red Tent, Sarah, &
Rebecca a couple of years ago.  Orson Scott Card is a predominantly science fiction writer - really
into high tech computer stuff and also a Mormon.  So he deviated from his usual writing with
Sarah and Rebekah  His interpretation of Sarah was interesting, but I think his interpretation about
how Sarah would have felt about nursing was completely off.  He describes her as being relieved
when she went through ceremony for weaning on the 2nd birthday. This seems to me to be a
modern interpretation of how women would feel about weaning in a culture that does not value it.
It seems to me, that a mother who had gone through so many years of barrenous and finally had a
child at an older age would really miss that closeness and bonding and would have mourned the
event rather than celebrated her freedom.

Susan Burger, MHS, PhD, IBCLC

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