Fathers might need help to see that babies love not just milk but
breastfeeding's warm skin-to-skin, face-to-face contact (which fathers
can provide without added equipment).  Maybe we could share info on
Harry F. Harlow's well-known 1950s psychological experiment with sad
little baby rhesus monkeys, separated from their real mothers and given
two artificial surrogates -- a hard "wire-mesh mother" that gave milk
and a soft warm "terrycloth mother." The babies spent most of their time
with the comfort figure and retreated there in times of distress.
Google reveals the experiment is discussed on a number of websites, such as
http://coudformation.tripod.com/whyclothmother.html
http://www.epub.org.br/cm/n13/experiment/affective/rhesus.html

Come to think of it, this might be interesting to mothers who feel that
they're loved just for their milk.

Margaret Wills, LLLL, IBCLC

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html