Talk about Extended Breastfeeding! (A Fun Fact)
The Nursing Mother’s Guide to Weaning (you can pre-order the revised edition which will be released on April 15, 2007) talks about how extended breastfeeding is more common if the mother is from an African, Asian or other non-Western society.
The most characteristic mode of human infant care the world over, in fact, is much like those of other primates: The mother keeps her baby near her continuously, and she nurses often, as much for pacification as for nourishment, at least until the child is able to feed himself and get about independently. Favored children may be nursed much longer: Pu Yi, the last emperor of China, was suckled by a wet nurse until he turned eight (Behr 1987).
p. 6.
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4 opinions for Talk about Extended Breastfeeding! (A Fun Fact)
Hsien Lei
Jan 6, 2007 at 3:00 am
I forget in what context this paragraph was in but “Asian” is such a broad term. In countries like Singapore, Japan, Vietnam, and Taiwan (all places where I’ve lived and/or visit every year), extended breastfeeding is considered unnecessary and even harmful to the child - mentally and physically. You can bet I did my best to educate people when I had the chance but the pervasive feeling is in support of breastfeeding only when the child is not yet able to walk.
Angela
Jan 6, 2007 at 5:37 am
You make a good point. I suspect the author meant countries that are not as developed (and hence more like “Western” countries where extended breastfeeding is seen as less natural). I also wonder whether there are differences between large cities and rural ones, although that’s certainly not the case in the U.S.
Kristen King
Jan 6, 2007 at 11:23 am
There have been so many studies that support the benefits of extended breastfeeding, it’s amazing that Western society, with its overall high level of education and access to medical information, doesn’t do it on the whole.
I have to chuckle, though, remembering that episode of Desperate Housewives where the new employee at Lynette’s ad agency pulls her six-year-old out of in-office daycare to breastfeed him and everyone was positively horrified. Societally, I think there is probably an age at which breastfeeding just isn’t appropriate anymore, but each family needs to decide that on their own.
kk
Angela
Jan 8, 2007 at 8:54 am
Kristen, there are trends in breastfeeding, usually trickling down from wealthier classes. Lately the trend has been back toward breastfeeding (thank goodness), but I think it will take even longer for extended breastfeeding to become more common, or at least more widely discussed. I heard a speech by the famous breastfeeding researcher/anthropologist Katherine Dettwyler (http://www.kathydettwyler.org/dethowlong.htm), and she talked about the surveys she did on breastfeeding. Women expressed sadness that they didn’t know other women who breastfed as long as they had, but it turned out that many of the respondents lived within the same zip code. People just don’t talk about it, partly because it’s still so taboo in our Western society.
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