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Subject:
From:
Tracy Throckmorton <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 24 Aug 2000 12:40:59 -0700
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Kathleen,
I do hope you know that I was stating something simplistically for lactnet and not in the way that I would say to a parent.  The times I have used this analogy have been in response to a grandparent or parent stating that BF seems more complicated than expected (for all the reasons you say).  They may also be picturing poking a bottle in a babies mouth and sitting in front of the TV for all I know!
We have at least another generation to educate before there are moms in the west who grew up with the exposure to normal baby care and babies who were not messed with.
tracy
-----Original Message-----
From:   Kathleen G. Auerbach, PhD, IBCLC [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Thursday, August 24, 2000 8:38 AM
Subject:        bikes and trikes

I rarely have an opportunity to participate in LACTNET discussions these
days, but the analogy to learning to ride a bike or trike punched several o
fmy buttons.  So sorry is this is lengthier than people would prefer.

Suggesting that bottle-feeding is easier for a baby ignores how babies were
meant to be fed (by Nature) and probably derives from an incomplete
understanding of what babies have practiced in utero as it relates to
suckling.  My understanding suggests that babies NOT INTERFERED WITH will,
in most cases, take to breastfeeding as if they were born to it.  Becuase
they were!

Now, in developed countries it seems to me that the LACK of good
breastfeeding assistance (and in fact discouragement from a variety of
sectors) for many years may have created a situation where it is the WOMEN
who have trouble learning what to do:  here that analogy to bikes and trikes
might be more relevant.  That I can live with.

However, if one looks at women who have always been surrounded by other
women who have breastfed and the younger ones have learned about
breastfeeding fromthe time they were young children and had eyes to see and
a desire to imitate (as all children are wont to do), then, the need to
learn on a trike first in order to go tothe bike also does not apply. In
such cultures/societies, like most babies, I would bet that most women have
little difficulty learning what to do. (This does not mean that some women
might not do well--as in physiological incapacity to make sufficient
milk--but that is a different matter entirely.)

Enough already... What do you all think?

Kathleen G. Auerbach, PhD, IBCLC
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