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Subject:
From:
"Kathleen G. Auerbach" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 5 Mar 1997 09:14:59 -0800
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Caution, folks!  I do not think it is wise to assume that when breasts look
"tubular" this means they do not make milk in sufficient quantities.  Keep
in mind that in some cultures, a long skinny looking breast is sought after
and works quite well.

I will never forget when on a lecture tour in Australia oohing and aahing
over a photographic book focusing on Australian Aboriginal culture.  In
this book were numerous pictures of life as it was in the 1930s before
Western (read WHITE) culture intruded so substantially as to cause serious
breakdowns in that culture.  One picture showed three or four young girls
(probably 9 or 10 years old) sitting on the ground with gourds at each end
of a string.  THe string went around their necks and the gourds thus hung
down simulating breasts!  The little girls were practicing being mothers!
When their mothers breastfed, the baby was often in the lap of the mother.
Having a long breast would clearly make it a lot easier for the baby to
reach the breast from the lap than those pert little things many young
teens have.

Similar images have been portrayed in other cultures as well.  Also, in the
US I have seen women with long tubular breasts who inherited this shape
from their mothers! (The women complained that their mothers looked the
same after having had a baby and could they do anything about it in
themselves?)  My answer: probably not.  There was no problem with milk
production; the big problem was the women feeling they were not as
attractive because they did not have those pert little things mentioned
above!  sigh

In considering issues as serious and potentially life-threatening (in a
world without formula or wet nurses) as insufficinet glandular tissue, we
need to remain acutely sensitive to the breadth of variation in both shape
and size of breasts as we consider how well they work.



"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly
disguised as impossible situations."
Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC (Ferndale, WA USA) [log in to unmask]
WEB PAGE: http://www.telcomplus.com/~kga/lactation.html
LACTNET archives http://library.ummed.edu/lsv/archives/lactnet.html

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