Let's try this again after a computer blow-up.  :-(

Several of you participated in an informal study on weaning during
pregnancy I posted a while back, and I'm sure you're waiting for the
results.  :-)  With the exception of a few last people I'm waiting for
(for their data) I've managed to compile most of it.  If you know I,m
waiting for something from you, please don't send mail asking if I want
the information still.  :-)  I *do* want it.  :-)  I just thought I'd
post what I have *so far* since I'm there.

My original questions were:  sex of the older child?  age of the older
child at conception?  weaning?  at the birth of the younger child?  If
the older child weaned during the pregnancy, did s/he come back to nurse
after the birth at all?  To try and taste (but not to continue) or for a
while to follow?  If the child did not wean during the pregnancy, did
s/he wean soon afterwards in a specific manner?

Please keep in mind that this is an INFORMAL survey, that I did not
correct all the data to include variables like the mother's education
and feelings about nursing through pregnancy, or any "disabilities" in
the child that might have caused any differences.

I am still working on some of the information, notably the mean age for
weaning when weaning occurred, to see if there is any correlation.

The people participating ranged in age from 3.5 months at the time of
conception (a girl) to 76 months, or 6.25 years, at the time of
conception (a boy).  Both of these 2, interestingly, did not wean during
the pregnancy.  :-)

I had 61 boys in the survey and 42 girls, so obviously there are far
more boys than girls here, but I think that the weaning amounts of them
(despite having such a small sample size) was interesting:  18 of the
boys weaned, and 16 of the girls weaned.  Therefore, almost double the
number of girls weaned than boys, compared to the total number.

Of the 18 boys who self-weaned during a pregnancy, 9 of them tried to
nurse again, but did not contine either because they had forgotten how,
or they disliked the taste, or they found the situation to be generally
amusing and/or embarressing and didn't try again.  1 boy started nursing
again for a "long-ish" while.  The other 8 never did.

Of the 16 girls who weaned during the pregnancy, 11 of them tried to
nurse again, but did not continue past a try or 2.  3 of them re-started
breastfeeding for a good amount of time.  The other 2 did not even try.

There were several interesting scenarios in the results.  First of all,
I (of course) had several people with children who nursed through more
than one pregnancy.  I counted each subsequent time as different,
because I was thinking if there was a trigger like the change in taste
of the milk to colostrum, it is possible that that was a "big" trigger
to an older child, but not so big to a younger child who still "needed"
to nurse more often either for emotional or nutritional needs.  As it
is, I had one child who nursed through one pregnancy but not through a
subsequent one (he weaned during the 2nd pregnancy).

Secondly, I had a young boy who was weaned by his mother early on in the
pregnancy due to sore nipples on her part.  He was being told often that
there would be milk back in Mom's breasts after the birth to feed his
sister, and he showed a great interest in this, and actually started
nursing *before* his sister was born.  This was the only case of
this happening that I noticed.  Generally I was not actually recording
the information about children who were mother-weaned because I was
wanting to see the information on self-weaning children, not mother-led
weans.  Perhaps it would be for another time, a survey about which
mothers don't like nursing during prengnacy, but this time I was
interested in the babies.  ;-)  This boy is not included in the results,
but I thought I'd tell you about him because I thought the situation was
intersting.

Thirdly, there was one case of a young female child who self-weaned at
12 months.  The mother gave birth to a healthy male child when the first
child was 17 months.  This girl started nursing again when she was 26
months old, a full 14 months after weaning.  This is the only case I've
seen of this.  I gather that the mother described how to nurse, open
wide, etc, and this girl is, to my knowledge, still nursing.  :-)

Lastly, but not the least interesting, is the case of a girl who
self-weaned at 19 months, whose sibiling was born when she was 24 months
but who was in NICU.  From what I understand, the mother got the girl
latched on in the night (I assume either sleepy, or asleep) and ended up
being able to avoid pumping at night (to relieve engorgement) and also
had a great supply to give to the NICU for her 2nd child.  I gather this
girl also went on to nurse for a while following this.

So, in actual fact, the 2 girls who started "really" nursing again were
special case scenarios...the one starting 14 months after weaning, the
other starting at night to help out mom's supply and pumping for the new
baby.

There were also several children who weaned *after* delivery.  Most
commonly, it was after the milk came in (quite the abundance compared to
the meagre amounts  of colostrum available during the pregnancy), but
one 43 month old boy weaned suddenly 3 weeks after delivery, and a few
never breastfed again upon seeing the baby nurse, despite nursing
throughout the pregnancy up until the delivery (and sometimes during
labour!).

The personal stories were all very interesting to read, and I'd like to
thank each and every one of you for participating.  I will get back to
you soon with the final stuff like the mean ages for weaning and that.

I also wanted to note that I had participants from Pakistan, South
Africa, Australia, France, USA (of course!) and Canada (and perhaps I'm
forgetting a few, if so please forgive me)!  :-)

If there are any questions, don't hestitate to ask me, and I will try
and reply to the best of my knowledge.  Of course, as I collected most
of the data for this survey on the internet, I am keeping people's names
out of it, and just giving sex and ages.

Thanks again!

Fio.

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