>In a recent post, Kathy Dettwyler remarks on the lack of breastfeeding among >British and other English-speaking women with young children who were POWs >during WWII in SE Asia. I'm no historian, but my impression is that most >Anglo women in Southeast Asia around the onset of WWII were upper class, the >wives of high-ranking military officers, government officials, and >businessmen. At that time, the military and civilian gov't drew their ranks >from the highest echelons of society. Most British officials were graduates >of Sandringham, Eton, Oxford, Cambridge, which were then, even more than now, >reserved for the privileged classes. ..... >On the other hand, isn't there some data on Anglo women who were pregnant at >the time they were imprisoned who were helped to breastfeed by missionary >nurses when the babies were born? and the good survival of those babies >given the wretched conditions of the camps? > >Mary Cummins, M.Ed., IBCLC >private practice, Scottsdale, AZ Got it right, Mary. Dame Dr Cicely Williams, author of the famous Milk and Murder speech given in Singapore in 1939, was interned as a spy in WWII, working as the women's camp doctor. All twenty babies born in the camp during this period were breastfed and all survived. Lesley McBurney, Brisbane, Australia