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From:
vgthorley <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 14 Jan 2008 10:18:51 +1000
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I would like to applaud Pam Morrison's well-worded reminder that the main risks or abandoning breastfeeding are those of the baby.  We forget that the arguments about maternal "choice" are cultural - not intrinsic - and are very Western-centric.  Why should these ideas be promoted for the whole world?  Indeed, we should be questioning whether they are appropriate to Western countries, and work towards cultural change through education at every level.  If you thing we can't change culture, consider these examples of cultural change in Western countries:

* the provision of free, universal education from around the 1870s (depending on the country) and acceptance of this as a Right;
* the moving of the place of birth to the hospital, and its "normalisation" in the culture;
* the expectation of birth interventions, and natural births as aberrant or heroic;
* the nuclear family as the "normal" primary unit of society, and the demise of 3-generation households that can support the parents;
* access to divorce without needing an Act of Parliament (as was the case in 19th C Britain);
* the very old belief, certainly in Australia, that the bottle is essential in babyhood - in the past to deliver water, juice and/or top-ups, and now to use to store or deliver expressed breastmilk (instead of working towards normalising of breastfeeding in public ,and industrial changes to create workplace creches and breastfeeding breaks in the working day);
* workplace health and safety measures, so that people expect *not* to die at work and to come home alive at the end of the day.

It is a good idea to question assumptions and why we think a particular way.

my 2 cents' worth.

Virginia

Dr Virginia Thorley
Honorary Research Fellow
School of History, Philosophy, Religion & Classics
The University of Queensland, QLD 4072
Australia

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