The harsh regime described by Norma is consistent with stories I have 
heard from my own mother and her contemporaries, who were having 
their babies in the 1940s ,1950s and 1960s....and please don't anyone 
think these attitudes have died out in today's maternity wards :(

Breastfeeding was given lip service as the 'ideal' way to feed - as 
evidenced in my collection of books and leaflets from that time, and 
indeed, from what's been reported to me - but the practical means to 
'make' it happen were just not there.

I think a major reason (but not the only reason) for this was the 
move into more or less universal institutional birth, where routines 
and separation of the mother and baby were set in stone.

Until the 1940s, most UK babies were born at home, but middle class 
women tended to have their babies in private maternity homes, and 
this trend persisted into the 1950s.  In the UK, middle class women 
led the post-WW2 move away from breastfeeding (I am speaking very 
simply here - the trend away from universal bf really began in the 
19th century).

My mother told me a terrible story recently - about the private 
maternity home which 'guarenteed' your baby would be sleeping through 
the night by the time you went home (at 12-14 days). That, in 
marketing terms, was their selling point.   Breastfeeding in these 
homes was something mothers were 'allowed' to do, under the strict 
limitation schedules imposed by the regime.  Naturally enough, it did 
not last very long, unless the mother was very persistent, lucky and 
informed.

During this period, non-breastfed babies had the subsidised National 
Dried Milk, *or* proprietary formula, which was heavily advertised. 
I'd need to speak to a few more women, but I think that if you could 
afford it, you'd use the proprietary stuff...a bit like the way 
middle class women in the UK today who use formula tend to choose the 
very slightly more expensive formula, or the organic stuff.

My own mother had serious mastitis three times and was very ill - the 
fourth time she did not breastfeed at all, convinced she was just one 
of the women who 'couldn't breastfeed'. Her mastitis, I believe, 
knowing what I know now,  was caused purely and simply by restricted 
feeding. Her kindly doctor, who was a lovely person I remember very 
well, reassured her that while breastfeeding was wonderful if you 
could do it, there was no point in persisting as formula was almost 
as good. My mother was very relieved.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK
-- 
http://www.heatherwelford.co.uk

http://heatherwelford.posterous.com

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