LACTNET Archives

Lactation Information and Discussion

LACTNET@COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
"katherine a. dettwyler" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 26 May 1995 10:31:05 -0500
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (66 lines)
>There is a TON of information about beliefs about breastfeeding during
pregnancy in different cultures around the world.  Generally speaking, the
majority of people do not think it is a good idea to continue breastfeeding
while you are pregnant, and have cultural rules about weaning the baby when
you find out you are pregnant.  There are several caveats to interpreting
this information however:

1.  In many, many cultures, there was traditionally a post-partum sex taboo
that prohibited sexual intercourse between the parents while the baby was
still nursing, even if that meant 3 or 4 years of no sex.  This was a child
spacing mechanism, either consciously or unconsciously people recognized
that children born too close together were both a drain on the mother and at
higher risk of dying for the older child.  That meant that a woman who was
still nursing and who was pregnant again had BROKEN THE TABOO, and the
stated rationale for weaning the older child was that the semen had
contaminated the milk and would make the child sick.

2.  Where post-partum sex taboos were, for example, only until the baby
walked and talked, but not necessarily until it was weaned, women could
resume sexual relations while the baby was still nursing.  However, the
child was still probably 12-18 months old, and was not as affected by
weaning due to another pregnancy.

3.  In addition, most women in "traditional" (non-Western, non-Industrial)
cultures nurse their children on demand, many times a day and many time at
night, where they are sleeping together, and do not use pacifiers or
bottles, and thus have relatively long post-partum amenorrhea from
lactation.  So, again, the child is usually into its second or even third
year of life before the mother's fertility returns and she gets pregnant
again.  So if her culture tells her to wean the child, it isn't a big deal.

4.  Finally, in Mali, where I do research, people say that you can get
around the rule of not nursing while pregnant in several ways.  One is to
take special traditional medicine that the herbalists can provide which
"prevents the semen from entering the breast milk."  The other is more
subtle -- women don't necessarily know whether they are pregnant or not.  A
missed menstrual period doesn't necessarily mark pregnancy, as many women
have sporadic menstrual periods while resuming fertility, and others miss
periods due to poor nutrition, and still others have early miscarriages that
are not recognized as such, merely as "a missed period doesn't mean you are
pregnant."  Therefore, they wait for some secondary confirmation of
pregnancy such as morning sickness or sore breasts, or 3-4 months of missed
periods.  So by the time they have finally decided they are pregnant and
have decided to wean the child, they may be 4-5 months pregnant, and the
child is 2-4 years old.

Thus, nursing during pregnancy cross-culturally is relatively rare, and is
found probably most often in the U.S., where women are very well-nourished
and healthy, and even though breastfeeding, encourage their infants to nurse
on a schedule, use a pacifier, and sleep through the night early, so their
periods/fertility returns quickly.  My own experience of 23 months of
lactational amenorrhea is thought to be "atypical" even by my breastfeeding
friends.  I have another friend who had 36 months of lactational amenorrhea
with her first child.  I always use these examples in classes of
undergraduates to stress one of the many extra advantages of breastfeeding
on-demand for several years, and co-sleeping.

Hope this info helps!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
Katherine A. Dettwyler                                email:
[log in to unmask]
Anthropology Department                               phone: (409) 845-5256
Texas A&M University                                    fax: (409) 845-4070
College Station, TX  77843-4352

ATOM RSS1 RSS2