I expect that you are right Darillyn and personally feel that it is more
important what ex breastfeeders *think* about breastfeeding rather than what
they *remember*

Actually, I have been contemplating for some time doing some research
looking at now adolsecent and adult adoptees who were breastfed by their
adoptive mother feel about having been breastfed and potentially how they
feel this has impacted their relationship with their adoptive mother, with
their biological mother if they are in reunion (or their thoughts about
their adoptive and biomother) and how they feel about having been breastfed
etc. There is an amount of controversy about adoptive breastfeeding,
especially amongst birth/natural mothers. It is suggested that adoptive
mothers who breastfeed are attempting to ursurp the role of the biological
mother and that being breastfed by their adoptive mother would be
confusing/harmful to an adopted child. I think thoughts of adoptees at
different stages of life would be very interesting. I'd be interested in the
thoughts of any of you on other avenues worth investigating.

In my own case I expect that my daughter will in fact remember breastfeeding
long term because breastfeeding was a strange and unusual thing to her. In
fact there was a look of complete shock on her face the time I first offered
her breastfeeding at 3y4m. Just the other day she surprised me by telling me
that a friend who is hoping to breastfeed her newly adopted 1yo would need
to do some pumping, obviously me pumping is etched in her memory.   At the
moment breastfeeding, at 5yo, breastfeeding is still very important to her.
Yesterday, when I asked her why she wants "milk" she said "Because I am your
baby and it tastes like icecream." She is very sweet.

Karleen Gribble
Australia



> I suspect that, in many people who breastfed long-term, there is memory =
> of times feeling comfortable, safe, secure, etc., that actually come =
> from time spent nursing, even if they don't remember that they were =
> actually latched onto the breast. =20

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