I'm missing Pamela Morrison's voice and I want Rachel Myr to pipe up hear ---- although I 
don't know the sleep norms in Norway.

But, I'm thinking about the anatomical variations we see and wondering what really 
happens in cultures that did not have as much disruption to normal sleep rhythms and 
practiced intuitive observation of infant cues for decisions on switching breasts.  It 
dawned on me that we are talking about block feeding, which I do use.  And I never ever 
tell mothers with an oversupply to pump just a little to take the edge off --- I tell them to 
drain completely once a day if they need to in order to prevent blocked ducts. 

Here is the part that I can't figure out.  Why is it that the Kung (I forget where the 
explanation point goes) feed their babies constantly --- as in many African cultures up to 
20 times a day and their babies are almost never unhappy.  Granted I was single when I 
worked in Africa, but I don't ever remember mothers complaining about anything that 
ressembles colic, but I wasn't asking and I was not really considered a "woman" yet 
because I hadn't had a child.  

Yet here we are in our modern societies having a problem where we have to stretch out 
breast drainage for long periods of time.  At least in the US, bed sharing is considered so 
dangerous that the New York City department of health is considering taking infants away 
from their mothers for doing so --- and have not specified if this is merely for the 
mothers who are truly at risk of overlaying on their infants or for everyone.

I can't blame this on increasing rates of obesity in developed countries because that 
would presumably lead only to more fatty tissue, not more milk storing tissue (and some 
of the women in Africa were quite obese at least in Central Africa.   

I actually don't believe in foremilk/hindmilk imbalance.  This is a theory that no one has 
successfully "proven" in a form that I believe yet.  Over the course of a 24 hour period, if 
the baby is getting all the milk that is taken out of the breast, the baby is getting varying 
levels of fat and it should all come out in the wash.

Could it be, that these mothers and babies fall out of synchrony because the norm is to 
push the limits of tolerance.  That is, at the slightest sign the baby is done, the baby is 
wrapped up and taught to "sleep" or "not become reliant on mom".  If the baby has an 
anatomical variation that might be perfectly fine in some other intuitively feeding culture, 
that baby might be fine.  But, pushing things to the limit, what was once a "normal" range 
of variation is no longer functional in an environment where babies are slipped off the 
breast as soon as possible.  These mothers might then appear to be "oversupplies" 
because their breasts are not getting adequate drainage because of premature removal of 
the breast.  American culture has a firm belief that babies use mom as pacifiers.  Then 
the baby slips off the breast more and more because the breast is overly full.  And thus 
begins a vicious cycle of asynchrony.  Then mom starts round after round of food 
elimination to her own detriment, getting more and more stressed out as she eliminates 
the food she likes and/or needs.  

I have trouble believing that lactose --- the sugar that is so high in breast milk --- 
somehow causes intolerance for the baby.  Gut transit time yes, but lactose, I'm not 
convinced.  

Would those babies with posterior tongue ties actually do better in an environment where 
mom had sufficient support to enable her to do so and actually had a surrounding culture 
that enabled her to really growing up and embracing the concept that she will actually 
enjoy a lot of contact with her baby?  Is the poor feeding a matter of inadequate time and 
contact with mom --- and the SYMPTOMS from inadequate drainage appear when there is 
insufficient contact?

Is the preponderance of babies who seem to regurgitate painfully a product of trauma 
during the birthing process that has never fully been addressed?  Or perhaps a product of 
lack of skin contact and baby wearing.  Babies in Africa are always carried upright on the 
back --- never sideways and never with their chins in their chests. 

And why is it that these babies do better lying down at night with both mom and baby 
horizontal?  Does that skin contact relax mother and baby in ways that are not possible 
during the day when they both are expected to be "efficient".

And in defense of mothers --- just read any mothering magazine and really count up the 
number of messages about all the things she is SUPPOSED to be to so many other people 
than her baby.  

Some days everything I think I know seems to get called into question.

Best, Susan Burger

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