History of Breastfeeding

Here is a fascinating article about the history of breastfeeding: http://www.historytoday.com/MainArticle.aspx?m=33033&amid=30259576 It's longer, but totally worth the time you spend reading it! Tell me what you think...it covers A LOT of history including some history of wet nursing. Wet nurses were around to help the royalty return to fertility faster, as we all know, breastfeeding can delay fertility depending on the nursing patterns. Not a totally reliable source of birth control, if you haven't read up on HOW it works, etc...duh. But those royal women had to get preggers again to have more heirs!

And the NAZI propaganda sign that you see in at the top says "Mutter and Kind" which means "Mother and Child." The smaller type above that says "Support public aid" which I think would be something like their version of WIC http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/aboutwic/wicataglance.htm which is what I think needs to be done...the cycle of poverty needs to be interrupted...yes, even today!

And here is a quote from the article, which emphasizes the more education a woman has, the more likely they are to breastfeed longer. I think that this is due to a lot of things. But what can we do, to increase breastfeeding rates here in the US? Ok, and now the quote, commenting on more modern breastfeeding information:

The twentieth century was unique in the sense that, for the first time in
history, it became a real possibility that breast milk could be replaced as the
source of infant feeding. It was also unique in the fact that, by the end of the
century, it was educated and higher-income mothers who were the most likely to
continue breastfeeding their children the longest. It was certainly also the
century that made the female breast into a commodity, readily available to the
public gaze in print, television and cinema, and used to sell all sorts of goods
and services – from motor cars and clothes to holidays and insurance policies.
However, the lactating breast, when it occasionally appears, still seems
able to create great controversy.