>In a recent post, Kathy Dettwyler remarks on the lack of breastfeeding among
>British and other English-speaking women with young children who were POWs
>during WWII in SE Asia. I'm no historian, but my impression is that most
>Anglo women in Southeast Asia around the onset of WWII were upper class, the
>wives of high-ranking military officers, government officials, and
>businessmen. At that time, the military and civilian gov't drew their ranks
>from the highest echelons of society. Most British officials were graduates
>of Sandringham, Eton, Oxford, Cambridge, which were then, even more than now,
>reserved for the privileged classes.
.....
>On the other hand, isn't there some data on Anglo women who were pregnant at
>the time they were imprisoned who were helped to breastfeed by missionary
>nurses when the babies were born? and the good survival of those babies
>given the wretched conditions of the camps?
>
>Mary Cummins, M.Ed., IBCLC
>private practice, Scottsdale, AZ
Got it right, Mary. Dame Dr Cicely Williams, author of the famous Milk and
Murder speech given in Singapore in 1939, was interned as a spy in WWII,
working as the women's camp doctor. All twenty babies born in the camp
during this period were breastfed and all survived.
Lesley McBurney, Brisbane, Australia
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