A few months ago, I asked averyone on lactnet how long they had nursed, how
many children and what was the sex and birth order of their children.  I
spent many hours on my vacation last week compiling results.  I like
statistical studies so it was much fun.

These results are not scientific, not in compilation or analyzation.  They
did make me think about a more formal, standard survey.  These results raised
some questions in my mind that I am interested in seeing answered somewhat.
 Some of the responses I got were merely the number of months a woman had
breastfed, others were very complete case histories.  Thus the numbers don't
all add up in a neat way.

Thanks to all who responded.  Your personal stories were very beautiful and I
feel privaleged to 'hear' them.  One sentiment echoed over and over was
regret accompanying experience that  a woman felt was less than she would do
now.  (Less amount of time breastfeeding, less assertive behaviour with
doctors, less understanding of her situation.)  I too have some regrets, but
hope we can all let go of these things and come to term with them.  All of
the women who shared with me, did their best.  We have all done what we could
when we could.  None of us made a conscious decision not to do more.  I pray
for peace for all of you/us in our personal and professional lactating lives!
:-)

And now I'll shut up- and on with the mini survey:

105 mothers responded
They breastfed and have weaned 228 children.
105 of these children are boys,  85 are girls, the rest are unknown to me.
These mothers breastfed for 533 years total.
The average time a child was breastfed was 28 months.
The average time a female was breastfed was 33.25 months.
The average time a male was breastfed was 25.7 months.
The longest of all nursers was a female for 82 months.

I paused here - and wondered: did females account for more second borns and
were second borns breastfed longer?

There were 73 weaned first born children.
They were breastfed for 24.19 months on average.
33 of these were females and were breastfed for 30.9 months on average.
40 of these were males and were breastfed 21.45 months on average.
There is a 44% difference between females and males.

There were 65 weaned second born children.
They were breastfed for 28.4 months on average.
33 of these were female and were breastfed for 29.36 months on average.
32 of these were male and were breastfed 27.4 months on average.
There is a 7% difference between females and males.

Overall there is a 17.5% increase in duration of breastfeeding from the first
born to the second born.
The difference in duration for first born females vs. second born females was
-5%, probably statistically insignificant.
The difference in duration for first born males vs. second born males was
28%.

The number of years that mothers tandem nursed was 22.125.  18 women tandem
nursed, the average was 14.75 months.  The shortest was 1.5 months and the
longest was 32 months.

I did not count the sudden weaning of infants who died, or infants of mothers
who were hospitalized.

I am sharing with the two Kathleens a survey that I'd like to do that would
clear up some of the fuzzies:  numbers and sex for all infants, birth order
for all infants, adopted babies, premature babies...  I am not inclined to
define breastfeeding as exclusively breastfeeding.  I am more inclined to
accept as the age of weaning the month a child no longer goes to the breast
at all.  I would like to include a catagory for exclusive bfeding, however.
 I did not include non-weaned, still nursing children.  I would like to have
a catagory for them as well.  I'd like to know the birth years of kids so I
could compare 1955 to 1995...

Let's hear it for 5 centuries of nursing!!!!

Sharon Fontaine Terry