My husband is reading a book called _Arctic Adventure; My Life in the 
Frozen North_ by Peter Freuchen.  It is a true narration of his time 
among the Greenland Inuit that begins in 1907.  Here is a passage my DH 
thought I'd be interested in:

"Many of those in my boat were elderly women.  Whenever we stopped to 
rest a young kayakman of about fifteen rowed close to the skin boat 
calling to his mother, one of the oarswomen.  She bent over the rail, 
lifted up her coat and gave him suck at her breast as she would to a 
baby of a year or less.  Later on I found this a practice common among 
the natives.  The youngest child, or the boys in a family, continue to 
suckle for many, many years.  I later knew one young man who was nursed 
by his mother until he married.  It is a matter of pride with Eskimo 
women, a pride in their youth, and the pleasant knowledge that they 
still have babies to care for, even if the baby is a grown man.  When a 
woman is no longer nursing a child she is old."

This is just a matter-of-fact passage early in the book as the author is 
describing his trip.  The book was published in 1935.

Becky Krumwiede, RN, IBCLC
Appleton, Wisconsin

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