By the way, the best single resources I have ever seen offering a no-nonsense look at motherhood across the world and over time is: 

Blaffer Hrdy, S. Mother nature: A history of mothers, infants, and natural selection. New York: Pantheon Books 1999.

It's a very long, detailed, well-referenced, fascinating and sometimes disturbing book that challenges many culturally based notions about motherhood. I highly recommend it. It supports well Barbara Wilson Clay's general comments about their being no utopia among traditional societies.

Cynthia

Cynthia Good Mojab, MS, IBCLC, RLC
Ammawell
Website: http://home.comcast.net/~ammawell
Email: [log in to unmask]
Announcement only email list: [log in to unmask]

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

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