----- Original Message ----- 
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2008 8:31 PM
Subject: [LACTNET] Oversupply or asynchrony, or cultural expectation?


(snip)
> Someone asked recently how breastfeeding became rocket science? I think it 
> became so when we stopped just doing it and started trying to control it. 
> Now we have so many women who struggle to make milk (the "right" amount up 
> or down), so many babies who struggle to feed and a culture that ignores 
> biological imperatives. What to do? I think talking in terms of the 
> physiological norm and the risks of ignoring it may lead us to both a 
> better language and a better approach to the problems we and our clients 
> encounter.

**I agree, Jennifer. Around 7.00 pm tonight I had a mom on the phone; she 
asked if it was okay to phone on the Sunday, upon which I replied that 
babies don't know it is Sunday... ;o)
Then she started our conversation with bursting into tears. We had a long 
conversation and she fell totally silent, when I explained about biological 
expectations from the child's perspective. She was *so* surprised to hear 
this! Over the last few months, I have more and more added these terms to my 
talks with moms: biological norm, biological expectations, biological 
normalcy. I often hear plain relief, when I shed this light on their 
situations. So, better language can, indeed, help us forward a great deal, I 
would think.

By the way, in this same discussion: thank you, Heather, for your beautiful 
analogy: "This proscription about 'snacking' fits in very nicely with our 
(relatively recent) cultural dislike of 'snacking' as something that we 
(adults) shouldn't be doing. Why shouldn't we be doing it? Because it makes 
us gain weight." I'll keep this one in mind, too, and will keep embellishing 
my language... ;o)

Kindly,

Marianne Vanderveen, Netherlands

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