Dear all: Quite frankly, I see the pump as a modern day equivalent of an intervention that women have used down through the millenium --- the wet nurse and/or baby swapping. This still exists in many cultures. In many cultures, women gathered together in cooperative groups and shared responsibilities, often in kinship groups and sometimes as cowives in polygamous societies. I saw a fair amount of specialization of talents among the mothers who befriended me when I was a young woman (and not really considered an adult since I hadn't had a child) in what was then Zaire. I find that we all tend to rely on a post-industrial revolution model of mothering, which is one mother one child. Perhaps some anthropologists can correct me on this, but I think for much of human history the norm has been mothering within groups of women with shared responsibilities. Thus, in our so-called "modern" societies individual women get all the responsibility and all the blame with little help. The one disadvantage of using a pump over the wetnurse is that the pump doesn't snuggle the baby close. However, I cannot imagine how one would set up a working relationship between mothers and wetnurses given that even establishing a working relationship with substitute "caregivers" is so fraught with mistrust on both sides. Can you imagine the screening process that a wet nurse would have to go through in the United States? The reason why our current relationships with caregivers are more fraught with anxiety (not that we don't sometimes have anxiety with relatives as well) is that they are not part of our kinship group and thus, we may not be sure of their investment in care of our children. I'm drifting back to those pet nurses - genetically tailored to meet moms needs! I'm just waiting for the next NY Times Sunday section to say that somebody came up with the glow in the dark version of a pet nurse. Best, Susan Burger *********************************************** 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(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html