Interesting article re extended breastfeeding

[Fuschia]

Though the journalism is very shoddy and as Ann Sinnott says in the comments, a lot of what is written by the journalist isn't accurate!!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/09/breastfeeding-older-children

You do need to read the comments, don't assume that what the journalist has written is an accurate representation of what is in the book (which she hasn't read!) or even of the interview with Ann Sinnott.

[Fuschia]

Ann Sinnott said:

"Great pity, and a great disappointment, Emma, that you based your piece on interviews and not on a reading of the book (BOC). That would be fine, even though superficial, if you hadn't misquoted me.

Why would I mention Greenland, as being distinct from the Inuit, when some Inuits, the Kalaait, live in Greenland?

I said that children come into the world with biological imperatives intact ? quite different, in words and in meaning, from: children aren't cultural creatures like us (and in quotes, no less!). How could they not be? I further said that we can learn from young children, if are willing; that their biological intactness, when not forcefully disrupted, can tell us something about ourselves, about our culture.

The 16yr old. I told you that I regarded him as damaged by the peculiar circumstances in which he grew up: with a group of women who regarded men as inferior, with breastfeeding (bfdg) used as a means to reinforce that. Hardly an example of healthy bfdg! I also cited historical instances of adolescent bfdg (King William Island and ancient Japan). In relation to this, you wanted me to speculate about my own daughter. Hypothetical and fraudulent counterfactual history, I resisted but eventually said that, IF she was demonstrably emotionally healthy (happy, outgoing, self-confident, relating to others well - the criteria I used when she was four, five, six), yet still wanted to breastfeed (bfd), I believed I would have continued. I also said I was relieved the situation never arose!

You immediately refer, in the next paragraph, to your question re older children being confused by the physical intimacy of bfdg, suggesting to the reader that there was continuance, when in reality there was not. We were speaking of young school age children. To them, bfdg is an ordinary source of sustenance/medicine/comfort, nothing more. Bfdg is physically intimate, but it is not sexually intimate. As you know (but perhaps you didn't read!), in BOC I speak about the sexualisation of breasts and how that influences the way bfdg is viewed and reacted to. Body hugging can be as physically intimate as bfdg, but you seemed unable to grasp that. Isn't that because you view bfdg through a cultural prism in which breasts are seen as primarily for sexual 'play', rather than for the feeding of infants? In Mongolia, where breasts are not regarded sexually, bfdg women (linking again to bfdg adolescents) routinely let family members, including adults, drink from their breasts. It is not, and is not experienced as, a sexual act.

I did not say I decided to bfd long-term when my daughter was 6mths old. I said it was a child-led process spread over many years ? an experience echoed by many of the 2,000 plus mothers who took part in the surveys for BOC; echoed, too, by Karleen Gribble's research (also quoted in BOC). Nor did you mention that, in those 3 golden years, I also worked as a freelance journalist and was thus able to work variable hours.

Neither did I say of my daughter's eating solids, 'it comes and goes at that stage'. I said that throughout her first 3 years, her interest varied, though bfdg did not (echoed by hundreds of mothers). Pity you didn't mention that at 8mths she was eating handfuls of spinach and broccoli! All children's need for solids varies ? but bfdg mothers do not worry!

In BOC, I said I was surprised by 77 women who experienced variable degrees of sensation, described by the majority as sensual, rather than sexual (except 18), and in all cases described as distinct from sexual activity with a partner. I also said I was interested in the questions women raised as to the root of the phenomenon: was it part of an evolutionary reward system (as argued by sociobiologist Blaffer Hrdy ? also mentioned by me), or linked to the sexualisation of breasts. I did not advance the theory as my own. Single by choice before motherhood, as well as after, my breasts, unlike for the majority of women, did not function in a dual role. It's an interesting area, and a pity you did not do it justice. Did not raise, for instance, the strong reactions some men experience when having to share their partner's breasts and the jealousy that can arise; did not speak of the feelings of exclusion and anger that some men experience; did not mention my reference to John Travis's work and his term, 'unbonded', for men inadequately mothered, including not being bfd, and how it affects relations with women and fatherhood.

You say the emotional advantages of sustained bfdg are hard to measure. On the contrary! Unlike physical health (needs long duration of time, control group, etc) psychosocial adjustment is easily measured, in adults or children (in Appendix 3/BOC, the results of such a test, on a 4yr.8mth old, who emerged with flying colours, is reproduced). In BOC, I call, with confidence, upon psychologists to test the psychosocial adjustment and attachment status of long-term bfd children!

"

[sanity girl]

Hi Fuschia

Yes, I also read the article and comments and found it all very interesting. I stopped breastfeeding my daughter when she was 15 months out of necessity (5 day work trip in US combined with advice from doctors as my body was really suffering from the lack of oestrogen because of prolonged bfing) but I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I had continued. She is almost three now and is still obsessed with touching my boobs, but doesn't express any interest in "boobie milk" any more!

[Belle]

Saw that article - interesting to read the comments, it's always good to be reminded that an article like that isn't necessarily accurate. You could tell from the tone of it how the journalist viewed the issue I thought.

However I must say I find the implication of her comment near the end "...inadequately mothered, including not being bfd" a bit insulting (as someone who didn't manage to bf) - but poss me being a bit sensitive.v