Thought you all might be interested on my dh's (Victor) take on breastfeeding. He is presently on postdoc #2, he is an evolutionary biologist. I recently purchased Kathy Dettwyler's book (Biocultural Perspectives...) since besides being interested in breastfeeding, in another life I got a M.A. in Anthropology. Anyway, dh looks at things through evolutionary behavior glasses. He really likes the way Kathy D. looks at the biological anthropology of breastfeeding. One of the "hot" topics in his field is Maternal Genetic Effects, how the genetics of the mother effects the phenotype/genotype of the offspring. He was discussing the book with one of his colleagues who got excited about the fact that the mother gets something out of breastfeeding - like "protection" from cancer. When Victor teaches a biology class, especially for non-majors, he likes to include many human examples to make it more interesting for the students. Many of these examples are from our real life raising our children or from breastfeeding related written material I've brought home. Just some food for thought. Alicia, LLLL in the Bluegrass (Lexington, KY) aka Post Poster <[log in to unmask]> World Breastfeeding Week August 1-8, 1997 - "Nature's Way"