I have one thought about why some cultures might have gotten to the point of 
not breastfeeding their babies, as a general rule.  I wonder if high infant 
mortality rates resulted in women attempting to protect themselves from 
grief by not getting attached to their babies, in the first place.  Of 
course the practice of artificial feeding greatly increased the mortality 
rates, but individual cultures often hang onto ideas, despite glaring 
physical evidence of the fallacy of them (including modern Western 
cultures).  Also, once a practice has become common, people often perpetuate 
it with no idea of how, or why, it ever started in the first place. I 
suspect that religious beliefs would have played a part in the establishment 
of a practice of artificial infant feeding, too, if people believed in 
predestination and therefore did not feel like anything they did affected 
whether or not a baby survived.  I would be willing to bet that there were 
many young mothers who had the instinct to want to breastfeed their babies 
and had to be dissuaded from doing so.

I would love to hear more about this topic, including such practices as more 
wealthy women having their babies breastfed by others, and also the belief 
that colostrum was poisonous.

Darillyn

"After reading the interesting post from Rachel on infant feeding history in
Iceland and Norway, along with a great talk I heard yesterday at a 
conference
by  Anne Merewood on the history of infant formula, I have a couple of
pondering  questions.
Why do women not want to breastfeed their children?  Now, I am talking  
about
the past when I asked this question not the modern day mother.   According 
to
history, women having been trying to give their babies other food  and drink
besides breast milk long before any formula companies were  developed.
Certainly these companies took an advantage of a trend they  observed and 
then
pushed it even more.  But why did women look to not give  their own milk, or 
any
human milk to their babies when it is readily there and  so nurturing?
Maybe someone with an anthropology background or sociology may help me
understand this.
I wonder if the human, who thinks about their world and questions it verses
just flowing with instinctual traits, messes us up?
Ann Perry, RN IBCLC
Boston, MA"

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