A friend shared this with me and I felt that it was something worth reprinting for everyone to think about... As we think about research , evidence-based research being the basis of policy in specific or in selective situations and why research is really not the basis of our practice at all . 

"  I found the following description in Jelliffe & Jelliffe' s Human Milk in the Modern World to be explanatory for me.

….. a functional castration of women has occurred.  They have acquiesced to a combination of forces, medical and cultural, which have eventuated in the use of the breast as the primary sex symbol and yardstick of feminine desirability, divorced from its nurturing role. Women in a critical period of their life cycle have become divorced from themselves and from the ability to confirm their identity fundamentally.  In this instance, the degree of concern of the medical profession might be described as inversely proportional to the dimension of the problem.  To draw an analogy, would the professional distance of physicians be maintained were it routinely recommended that all insemination  be accomplished artificially?  Would anybody suggest, seriously, that males abstain from intercourse, bind themselves, take drugs to relieve congestion, or be mechanically relieved routinely, and that it would be as good?

The apparent absurdity of the analogy goes to the heart of the problem.  If one sees lactation as part of a psychosexual continuum in women, the analogy can be taken seriously.  
Weichert , C (1975) Pediatrics 56.987.  Breast-feeding: first thoughts.
She is also of the opinion that: ‘To deal with anxieties that lactating women express concerning their ‘normality’, because of the sensual relationship they share with the infant, one must confront the relationship between lactation and sexuality, not deny it.’

Sent from my iPhone
Kathleen B.  Bruce RN IBCLC
Lactation Consultant RN,  IBCLC
802 578 6841 cell
802 879 8854 home
Inventor of Lactnet and Kbbspin.org
Spinners, Weavers, Knitters Housecleaning pages

(Apologies for typos. I find it difficult to get spelling correct when typing on small phone) kbb
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