The issue of how breastfeeding relates to population growth is a complex one. Demographic Transition Theory says that all populations "naturally" go through the same three stages as they "develop" economically and technologically. Stage 1 -- high fertility, high childhood mortality (deaths 0-5 years); population growth rate is steady Stage 2 -- high fertility, low childhood mortality due to improvements in health (immunizations and antibiotics) and diet and sanitation; population growth rate skyrockets Stage 3 -- low fertility, low childhood mortality; birth rates "automatically" come down as people realize that more of their children will survive, so they don't have to have so many; population growth rate is steady again, but now at a much higher level The longer a population stays in Stage 2, the bigger the overall population if/when it gets to Stage 3. Many demographers predicted that "Third World" countries would see a drop in the fertility rate as childhood mortality rates fell. In some countries, this has happened, in others it has not. Demographic Transition Theory seems to not hold true under certain circumstances, such as when children are very desired, when they are viewed as the source of happiness and wealth and status and contentment with life for their parents and extended families. For scholarly research on this topic, see Penn Handwerker's book "Culture and Reproduction : An Anthropological Critique of Demographic Transition Theory." In one of the case studies described in this book, women realized quickly that improvements in health and diet meant fewer child deaths, and this led them to curtail breastfeeding so they could have more children -- as they knew very well that prolonged breastfeeding led to 3-4 year birth spacings. If they could get good survival with 1-2 year or 2-3 year birth spacings, then that meant more children overall, which was their goal. In another case study, women realized quickly that improvements in health and diet meant fewer child deaths, but the same forces that led to improvement in health and diet (economic and technological development) also led to many of their children moving to the capitol city, away from the rural villages. So instead of losing children to sickness in early childhood, they lost children in their late teens to the lure of "bright lights, big city." In order to have several children who would stay in the village to support them in their old age, they had to have the same number of children they used to -- thus, no lowering of the fertility rate. Another thing to realize is that each person in the US consumes 30-40 times the resources of a person in a Third World country. Rather than focus on trying to get people in Third World countries to limit population size, a more logical approach would be to try to get people in the US to consume fewer resources, and/or to have fewer children, and to stop trying to turn Third World countries into consumer nations modelled after the West. Kathy Dettwyler *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html