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From: liz@umcp-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: breast feeding
Message-ID: <6101@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-Mar-84 15:29:59 EST
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.6101
Posted: Fri Mar 23 15:29:59 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Mar-84 09:45:51 EST
Organization: Univ. of Maryland, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 36

Anyone else see the article on breast feeding and birth control in
the April issue of Scientific American?  It seems that breast
feeding full time (on demand and around the clock...) is as effective
(or more effective) as a birth control method as any of the modern
contraceptives.  The sucking stimulus evidently causes certain
hormonal changes that cause a woman not to ovulate or menstruate
or anything.  A study of the !Kung tribe in Africa (?) shows that
births there are spaced over 4 years apart since the women breast
feed for something like 3.5 years.

One of the things that really surprised me about the article (besides
the fact that breast feeding is such a reliable contraceptive) was
that so few women do breast feed full time, that the experts aren't
sure when a baby who is breast fed full time should be started on
solid foods!  There aren't enough "normal" examples for them to
know...  I tend to think that there might be some women out there
who might have some idea...

This almost makes me mad because it seems like such a simple answer
-- and we know so little about it!  Of course nursing that full
time could be a pain, but with so much emphasis (until very recently)
on the "virtues" of bottle feeding when we know now (and really
should have realized all along) that breast feeding is so much
better for the baby...  You would think this kind of thing would
be more common knowledge...  Emphasizing bottle feeding is especially
bad in third world countries -- both because it tends to be unsanitary
and much worse for the baby and because they lose that free birth
control...

Any comments?  Anecdotes?

				-Liz
-- 
Univ of Maryland, College Park MD	
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