Hi. I have found the posts about self attachment and nipple pain very interesting. Ever since I was a child I have been interested in biology and animal behavior. I thought it would be extremely interesting to have a job like Jane Goodall and spend my time trying to figure out why animals do what they do. That was before I had kids and became interested in breastfeeding. Now I find the biology and behavior of mothers and babies to be very interesting! Anyway, it seems we are the only mammal that takes an active part in latching our babies. I don't know about primates. If nipple pain is a signal that baby is not latched well then what do other animals do if nursing is painful for them? They can't work with their baby to get a better latch! This idea of baby-led latching really makes sense and I plan to learn more about it. I realize that human babies are the least mature of all mammals at birth so maybe they do require more help from mom, but maybe we provide too much help under normal circumstances. Of course then you throw in all of the labor interventions and that seems to make babies even more helpless. I don't have any words of wisdom to add to this discussion, but I do hope it continues off and on in the future because I feel it is an important topic. I feel we have a lot to learn from our babies and our fellow mammals! Christine Lichte, LLL Leader, CBE, 2003 IBCLC candidate *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html