Katie Allison Granju says

>I'm not sure what point this person is ultimately trying to make. The fact
>that some cultures do things to babies (such as giving honey water to
>newborns) that are clearly risky doesn't prove anything regarding the
>biological imperative of immediate breastfeeding.
>
I agree. As soon as humankind became organised in various forms of what we
now call 'society' ,  breastfeeding which is of course a social act as well
as a nutritional one, has departed (in many different ways) from the
biological and physiological norm. In many societies - not just our own -
mothering has become affected by the ideas and strictures of 'experts' .
In some societies, for example,  colostrum is withheld because it is
regarded as harmful.

Clearly, immediate breastfeeding is the physiological standard. This
needn't be 'forced'.  There's no desperate hurry. In unmedicated birth,
with no separation of mother and baby, and a healthy mother and baby who
feel safe and secure, it will just happen.....

After today's 'typical' institutionalised births,  making sure mother and
baby stay together, with help and encouragement given to getting
breastfeeding underway, is one way of retrieving something of that
physiological norm.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK

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