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Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 6 Apr 2001 10:55:30 EDT
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Anne, in a post I mostly agree with, writes, however:

<< I think that with new welfare regulation which push new mothers back work,
 babies and mothers see less and less sunlight which affects them both
negatively. >>

This is the second post in a week or so that assumes that the bf babies
getting rickets are the same babies that are in daycare.   The previous post,
which I did not save, used the word "warehoused," if I am not mistaken.

I am prepared to agree that short leaves affect families negatively in many
ways.   But I don't think there's any evidence that the rickets and daycare
are correlated, much less causally related.

In fact many poor African American mothers live in places where it is not
particularly safe or comfortable to stroll outside with their babies in the
day or night near home.    In contrast, daycare centers in every state I know
of are required to have outdoor play facilitites and use them virtually every
day.   (last time we had this discussion someone posted with horror about her
child's daycare center forcing the children out [sic] to play in the freezing
cold, because they go outside whenever they can, by state law)

So I would assume the contrary -- that daycare should be INVERSELY correlated
to rickets.   At least you  have to leave your house to go there and back.
(Plus as we know the proportion of African American mothers who hold paid
jobs AND exclusively bf their babies is pretty small; why would you assume
that this little overlap is where the rickets were showing up even if the
logic were not to the contrary?)

My underlying point is that this is a lifestyle-bias -- daycare=warehousing.
   But of course for so many families daycare means not having to leave your
children locked in the apartment under the nominal supervision of a neighbor,
or less.   Not to mention that  for plenty of middle-class families, there
are perfectly nice warm loving daycare centers around now that people can
willingly let take care of their children.    OK, it's not France; but it's
not victorian orphanages, either.    And acting like it is is based on
preconceived bias.

If this bias is emerging when we talk to mothers asas it is when we talk to
each other, we undermine all the other messages we are trying to put across.

Elisheva

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