There's no point in debating in this context who has it worse, traditional or modern societies. Certainly we have less disease, more modern conveniences etc., nobody would question that. So does that mean when I have a woman exhausted in my office, with two to four hours of sleep per night for the last six weeks, who feels torn about putting her child in a lousy daycare 9-10 hours per day because she has to go back to work, whose husband is gone most of the time and drunk when he's home, who also has a two year old and a four year old with constant ear infections because they're in daycare, whose job won't let her pump because there's no good place and she doesn't have time, so she's thinking of quitting breastfeeding, I should say "Quitchyerbeefin', at least you don't have malaria and have to pound millet like they do in Africa."?! Of course not. No more than telling someone who's hurting from their appendix removal that they should just be happy it wasn't a brain tumor. These aren't university students. I see WIC women who are pregnant with unwanted babies with no social support. Social support is a big factor in how people cope with stress. It is my understanding that women in traditional societies to tend to have social support from a network of other women and extended family. The refugees I worked with for years said that their life here was easier in certain concrete ways but that they felt isolated and alone (even when there was a community of people from their country) because people here do not interact and support each other the way they did in their countries. We drive into our garages or stay at our separate jobs and shop in anonymous mega-stores where we don't see anyone we know. The women I see in maternity clinic often know nobody in town except their baby's abusive father or their mother that they don't get along with. Some people compare the lives of women in our society who deal with the kinds of things I see to those of women in third world countries. It isn't the same stresses but there are many. Who are we to judge whether it is a "legitimate" enough reason to complain and feel overwhelmed? I was just trying to get ideas about how to deal with the sleep deprivation that many women do experience and many women do see as a major problem and many women do blame on breastfeeding. I was trying to get ideas other than the extreme cry-it-out method. I think exhaustion and feeling overwhelmed are major reasons why women quit breastfeeding in the U.S.