> Second, all being African-American, they said they
> felt pressured from mothers, grandmothers, and 
> greatgrandmothers not to breastfeed.  Thier families thought 
> of breastfeeding as a "white" way of parenting, and didn't 
> think thier daughter/granddaughter could do it or should do 
> it. One girl even said that her grandmother said that it was 
> a slave duty.

This is interesting to me as I remember reading that while there where those
women whose 'job' it was to wet nurse, the majority of women where forbidden
to breastfeed by the slave owner because 1. they needed to with their babies
too often which interfered with their work and 2. the breastfeeding delayed
the return of fertility and the owner was hoping to increase the population
quickly.

I wonder how this would change the outlook of women if the cultural story
was that breastfeeding was one of the things taken from them by slavery?  I
wish I could remember the source...

Jessica Mattingly M.Ed., CCE, CBE, LLLL
Kansas City, MO

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