I wrote (referring to mothers in the West)
>>Hardly anyone carries her baby all the time, and sleeps with her baby, and
>>feeds her baby several times an hour without ever thinking about it as 'a
>>feed' ...for months and then, with some changes, for  years.

 Kathy wrote:
> I know it is hard not to assume that everyone shares our cultural beliefs
and practices, but remember that most women in the world carry their baby
(or someone else carries the baby), and most women in the world sleep with
their babies and many do indeed feed their babies several times an hour
around the clock for a few minutes each time.

Kathy - I don't find it at all hard to remember that! I meant hardly anyone
does *all of this*  'in the West', as my post made clear.  I know what most
women in the world do, and how very different practice is in the West.
That was my point ...the West is the cultural spot where most of us on
Lactnet find we are.

>So let's not "normalize" scheduled feeding and solitary sleeping and claim
>that it is impossible for modern women to parent in a more natural way,
>because in fact, most women in the world still do practice attachment
>parenting.


I don't want to normalize Western cultural practices. Most of 'em, we know,
are not good for bf, or for the bf relationship. I am just accepting that
many of those cultural practices certainly feel 'normal' to a lot of the
women we're working with.

I didn't say it was impossible for modern women to parent in a more natural
way....but I did say it was hard to *duplicate* normal, physiological bf in
a Western context. We give birth in a Western way - and this, I think is
crucial -  and we have Western expectations of what bf should be and what
babies should be.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne

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