Nicole Bernshaw wrote: << Create a need and make money. However, it is not so simple. Throughout history, we see mothers wanting to separate themselves from their babies. >> Those of you interested in Jewish studies may want to see the current issue of _Nashim: a journal of Jewish Women's studies and gender issues_. The whole issue is devoted to stuff about motherhood. In particular, there is a very interesting article by Gail Labovitz about what we can learn about breastfeeding in mishnaic times (roughly 200 BCE until 200 CE) from the period's legal texts. The context, generally, is that breastfeeding was one of the "labors" a wife was obligated to perform, along with cooking and spinning, as part of the marital ecomonic exchange in which her husband had to provide her with food, clothing, shelter, etc. If she brought servants to the marriage, however, she may be exempt from all of those labors -- that is, she was entitled to give her child to a wet nurse. However, if the child "knows her" -- that is, once the infant can recognize its own mother -- she may not send it any more to a wet nurse, because then it will be in danger, apparently because it may refuse to be fed by a stranger. There's more, including a bunch of cites to the texts. I recommend the article -- very intelligently done. But it is clear that some proportion of these ancient women saw it a) as a relief from obligation NOT to bf their children AND b) as an economic issue -- even before the advent of Playtex and Enfamil. So I agree with Nicole that it's important in our own day not to simplify low bf rates as being EXCLUSIVELY about corporate distortion (even though obviously that is a huge factor). This speaks to Mimi's point, too, that it's not as if Black moms will wake up to breastfeeding just because a bunch of strangers come around suggesting it in a video with faces of color in it. People want a lot of contradictory things in this life, and for us to treat the reasons NOT to bf as trivial is not only patronizing, it is also ineffective bf advocacy. Elisheva Urbas NYC *********************************************** 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