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Subject:
From:
Karleen Gribble <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 8 Sep 2000 11:02:12 +1000
Content-Type:
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Valierie wrote:
 If someone had
> told me that because of my engorgement I could not relactate, I probably
> won't have tried to relactate.  But I didn't know any better, I just
assumed
> it could be done.   I guess this just adds to the questions about
> breastfeeding...making life all so interesting.  Valerie W. McClain,
IBCLC

I'm writing a review paper on adoptive breastfeeding. One of the things
that has really struck me in my reading is the large difference in
"success" between women in the west and women in developing countries with
women in developing countries almost always producing a full milk supply
for their babies and women in the west rarely. Thinking about it I've come
up with a dozen or so reasons why this might be the case ( a paper in
itself) but one factor that I see as potentially being the most significant
is that women in the west are almost always told that they won't be
successful and are set up for failure.

Women are told, even by breastfeeding advocates (and this is very
disappointing), that they are not likely to succeed and that actually
producing the breastmilk is not important. This is a self fulfilling
prophecy. It is well known that
successful breastfeeding, even for bio mothers, is strongly related to
confidence that you CAN do it. People saying that it is not important and
saying that they will not succeed and that it is not important if women
don't
succeed are not helping, they are setting them up for failure.

It's like it used to be, and still is in some places for 'normal'
breastfeeding it is portrayed as difficult, not important and therefore we
mustn't tell women that they should breastfeed their babies and that they
can breastfeed their babies because, what if they fail, that will make them
feel bad. It is a paternalistic attitude that has plagued breastfeeding in
the west in the latter half of last century and continues for adoptive
breastfeeding now.

I would really like the thoughts of you all on this. It has been going
around and around in my head for some time. How important is the "I can do
it" attitude? What should we say to mothers?

Karleen Gribble
Australia
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