Ever since K. Dettwyler and now M. Small my concept of parenthood and what
is correct has been altered.  In other words, the idea a baby must attach
to only one mom depends a lot on the culture in which it is raised, and no
one way seems to be the only way.  The report I just read from Meredith
Small's _Our babies, ourselves_  published in Natural History of October,
1997.

She clarifies the term _ethnopediatricians_  who " see the infant as a
product of evolution, geared to enter a particular environment of care. 
What an infant actually gets is a compromise, as parents are pulled by
their offspring's needs and pushed by social and personal expectations." 

In Gusii Survival Skills Robert A LeVine talks about the need to protect
the infant for survival - and how the mom nurses and sleeps alone with a
new infant for 15 months to insure its health.

in An Infant's Three R's  Sara harkness and Charles M. Super describe the
importanct in Dutch child rearing of Rus (rest), Regalmeaat (regularity)
and Reinheid (cleanliness) which keeps the babies in a schedule very
similar to the Ezzo program.

Doctor's Orders describes how Edward Z. Tronick is teaching residents to be
more open-minded of the different cultural values of the patients they
treat in a mixed area of Boston.

The Crying Game by Ronald G. Barr reinforces what we have often said -
babies cry - this is normal - but the studies comparing _how long_ babies
cry depending on how they are responded to reinforces the idea of picking
the baby up as the !Kung do - their babies cry just as often, but as they
are responded to quickly, cry for a shorter perios of time.

The final essay is by James M. McKenna - Bedtime Story, describing his
results of co-sleeping.

So - again, depending on the culture the lesbian couple want to create for
their child - their idea of co-breastfeeding (even if only partially) may
be quite the right thing - for them.

Jeanette Panchula, BSW, RN, IBCLC
Puerto Rico
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