>IMHO the whole test weighing thingthing started to get out of
hand when rental scales became available.<

I am reading a book first published in 1941 'The Nursing Couple' by Merell P
Middlemore, who was a psychoanalyist.  She observed women in a (?London)
hopsital breastfeeding their babies.  She was particularly interested in how
the baby suckled and his/her attitude influenced the feeding process and
outcomes.  Her description of bf on the ward (where women stayed for some
time, maybe a few weeks -- I know my mil stayed 10 - 14 days with her first
baby later in the 40's) is of a regimented, feed on the designated hour
system.    "Just before the feed was due the babies were taken up by the
nurses.  Their napkins were changed, and those over three days old had their
weight recorded; in the course of weighing most of them cried.  The babies
were then wrapped in blankets and taken to the breast....At the end of the
feed he was weighed again, changed and returned to the cot."  (pp 23 - 26)

This is emphatically before any rental scales may have been available in
England.  Indeed, I am not aware that they are available now, but if anyone
knows about this, I would be interested (though distressed) to hear that
they are.

There is no discussion of the weighings Middlemore observed and how
influential they were in assessing whether babies needed supplements (which
are discussed). I guess this did not continue at home, but may be this is
part of the explanation for the (to me mysterious) lure of dragging the baby
to the local clinic weekly to be weighed.  (When I say mysterious, its a
mystery to me why *I* participated in this bizarre and undermining ritual.
And if I found it undermining, when I had a baby who weighed 12+ pounds by
the time he was 2 months old, think how others found it!!)

Taking the baby to the clinic is a real part of life for mothers in the UK.
If you don't go, you say so 'oh I don't bother to go more than once a month,
because I know he is ok / I have a toddler / the clinic is no use anyway'.
These clinics are about 100 years old (varies in different part so the
country) so we are into multiple generations of women who have experienced
them by now, and have experienced this weekly weighing as 'normal'.  (But
that doesn't really explain why I did it since I am an immigrant).

Magda Sachs
Breastfeeding Supporter, BfN, UK.

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