Nikki Lee wrote:
    So breastfeeding won't protect you from pregnancy, and you should
wean if you want to get pregnant. And human milk either stunts babies'
growth, or makes them grow too much.  I have heard that human milk
either constipates babies or gives them diarrhea.
    Anybody have any other conundrums?

Nikki, your question sent me to the dictionary, which tells me that a
conundrum is a mystery, generally any puzzling question or problem, or
in its narrower meaning, a riddle whose answer is a pun. To me,
breastfeeding is full of mysteries...some of them are even mysteries in
the theological sense--an assumed truth that must be accepted on faith,
or the Christian sense--a sacrament.

It is a mystery how a baby grows and thrives for months on a relatively
stable milk supply.
It is a mystery how maternal immune factors made in the mother's gut and
lungs make their way into the baby's circulation.
It is a mystery how the breast regulates production. Do we yet know
every biochemical step of autocrine control, or is it still a theory?
It's a mystery that the milk lets down when the mother just thinks about
her baby--the mind by itself influencing the physical response--and it's
a mystery that the milk lets down in response to the baby's scent.
It's a mystery that a breastfeeding mother and baby synchronize their
sleeping and dreaming times when sharing sleep.
Induced lactation and relactation are mysteries.
A child who was bottle fed from birth, is adopted when a toddler and
learns to breastfeed is a mystery.

The more we listen to the stories of nursing mothers, the more
mysterious things we hear.

I think Nikki's examples of the way ill-informed practitioners attribute
contradictory results to breastfeeding would qualify as paradoxes. A
paradox can be a statement that seems contradictory but is in fact true;
it can also be a statement that is self-contradictory and in fact false.
Most significantly, it can be "a person who is inconsistent or
contradictory in...behavior." Doesn't this absolutely fit the picture of
those health professionals and others who blame everything on
breastfeeding!

Some of the mysteries and contradictions may arise because breastfeeding
is an incredibly rich physical, emotional, and social relationship that
can last for years with each child. And because it involves human
beings, who can be VERY contradictory! And because it is something only
women do with babies and children, so it is inherently mysterious to
men.

Let's see...
Masters and Johnson found that lactating women feel sexier, but some
other authors say that lactating women are less interested in sex.
In the USA, I've known both very conservative families and very radical
families to value breastfeeding highly.
Women are both praised and chastised for breastfeeding.

Thanks, Nikki, for starting such a fascinating thread.
Chris


Chris Mulford, RN, IBCLC
LLL Leader Reserve
working for WIC in South Jersey (Eastern USA)
Co-coordinator, Women & Work Task Force, WABA

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