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Subject:
From:
Kathy Dettwyler <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 18 Feb 1999 06:05:59 -0600
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> Money ran out?  Not good enough.  The baby is the ultimate priority in the
family
>-- teach those values.

Not to sound too much like an anthropologist here -- but we need to remember
that putting the baby as the ultimate priority is not a value shared by
everyone, nor is there any basis for saying it *should* be.  In addition to
not being the top priority for many homeless women (survival for themselves
is probably the top priority), the baby's needs are not the top priority for
a huge proportion of the middle and upper classes in the United States -- in
fact, almost everything is higher priority, including the mother's career,
the housework, her looks, her convenience, etc.  So before we get all huffy
about teaching poor homeless women to put the baby first to match *our*
values, we should try teaching these values to the middle and upper classes.

Part of my grumpiness about this comes from a long and rewarding interview I
had yesterday with a health reporter from the LA Times, who told me about
all the mothers in Los Angeles who just couldn't juggle breastfeeding along
with all the other things they had to do -- they were just "wrecks" trying
to balance full-time work, social obligations, housecleaning, cooking,
laundry, AND breastfeeding a baby -- and I helped her to understand that the
underlying problem was lack of information about the importance of
breastfeeding to baby and mother's health, such that breastfeeding was
always allotted lowest priority.  And she countered that even when mothers
KNOW the difference it makes to baby's health, some/many of them will
continue to put it in last place, because their lives revolve around their
jobs/social obligations/looks -- not their babies.

Kathy Dettwyler

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