Boy, did I blow it. I ranted and raved on one of my highest
soapboxes, and then erased it. Sigh. Trying to reconstruct:

I must agree with Kathy Dettwyler about this woman's spaciness,
and want to add a few points:
#1 Using what tools did this *pediatrician* "estimate" this mom's
IQ?
#2 As far as I learned back in psych, someone with an IQ of "80-
90" would function quite well, and would be capable of making
decisions.
#3 As to reason for spaciness, I would rule out drugs,
medication, fatigue, stress, chronic disease and acute disease
before labelling this woman retarded and incapable of
breastfeeding her infant!

Let me tell you a story, absolutely true. When I was in high
school, a good friend of mine was worried about her younger
brother. This boy was spacier than a helium balloon, literally
floating through life, doing very poorly in school, had no
friends. His teachers finally persuaded the parents to send him
for IQ testing, both teachers and family being convinced that
this kid was retarded. Well, he ended up going to a special
school, all right - an ultra-exclusive one for super geniuses
(his IQ was over 200......). So much for subjective diagnoses of
retardation based on spaciness. Judy K. from Beer Sheva, Israel