There's no point in debating in this context who has it worse, traditional
or modern societies.  Certainly we have less disease, more modern
conveniences etc., nobody would question that.  So does that mean when I
have a woman exhausted in my office, with two to four hours of sleep per
night for the last six weeks, who feels torn about putting her child in a
lousy daycare 9-10 hours per day because she has to go back to work, whose
husband is gone most of the time and drunk when he's home, who also has a
two year old and a four year old with constant ear infections because
they're in daycare, whose job won't let her pump because there's no good
place and she doesn't have time, so she's thinking of quitting
breastfeeding, I should say "Quitchyerbeefin', at least you don't have
malaria and have to pound millet like they do in Africa."?!  Of course not.
No more than telling someone who's hurting from their appendix removal that
they should just be happy it wasn't a brain tumor. These aren't university
students. I see WIC women  who are pregnant with unwanted babies with no
social support.  Social support is a big factor in how people cope with
stress.  It is my understanding that women in traditional societies to tend
to have social support from a network of other women and extended family.
The refugees I worked with for years said that their life here was easier
in certain concrete ways but that they felt isolated and alone (even when
there was a community of people from their country) because people here do
not interact and support each other the way they did in their countries. We
drive into our garages or stay at our separate jobs and shop in anonymous
mega-stores where we don't see anyone we know. The women I see in maternity
clinic often know nobody in town except their baby's abusive father or
their mother that they don't get along with. Some people compare the lives
of women in our society who deal with the kinds of things I see to those of
women in third world countries.  It isn't the same stresses but there are
many.  Who are we to judge whether it is a "legitimate" enough reason to
complain and feel overwhelmed?  I was just trying to get ideas about how to
deal with the sleep deprivation that many women do experience and many
women do see as a major problem and many women do blame on breastfeeding. I
was trying to get ideas other than the extreme cry-it-out method. I think
exhaustion and feeling overwhelmed are major reasons why women quit
breastfeeding in the U.S.