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Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

nationalgeographic.com

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Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#131

Post by _oghd »

kneebonian wrote: post #82
_oghd wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

longevity? uh... no. capitalism is very young in human society. for clarity, feudalism lasted twice as long as capitalism has currently existed. and while competition has dominated the scientific and cultural narrative for a while, that's not the exclusive interpretation, or even necessarily the best or correct one.

I have to ask what do you mean by capitalism then? Was the blacksmith selling the products of his labor to people in the community not capitalism? What exactly do you mean by capitalism?

personally, i adopt the marxist analysis of capitalism being a particular mode of production where private productive property is owned and controlled by the owners/shareholders and labor is exchanged for wages.

if we are going to make a distinction between feudalism and capitalism, surely we can similarly make a distinction between capitalism and X, instead of simply defining capitalism uselessly as "free markets" or "human nature." it's inclusive of the institutions which uphold these relations.

Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#132

Post by valarauko »

klyrs wrote: post #56

My mom breastfed me in the 80s, but didn't produce enough milk. So, she had a wet nurse. This practice was mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, and probably goes back even further. That women are taught that this is a biological imperative is astonishingly ignorant of human history. Humans are not solitary by nature. We evolved as a society. It should be no surprise that we have evolved to rely upon that. And, no surprise,…

> That women are taught that this is a biological imperative is astonishingly ignorant of human history.

I'm confused as to what you're referring to here - breastfeeding, or wet nurses? Or that only the biological mother can feed the baby?

Wet nurses have always existed across the world, but outside elite society, they were the exception, not the norm.

Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#133

Post by justincredible »

garciasn wrote: post #89
jelliclesfarm wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too don’t understand why wet nurses aren’t a thing in our modern times. I suspect being bipedal has been an impediment for motherhood. Most mammals raise their young together communally. Human beings did not evolve to be solitary creatures and in our times, for nuclear families. Large extended families and tribal cohesiveness is how humans survived.

1. Because 'stuff' can be transferred via breast milk and, in general, people cannot be trusted. 2. Because we now have formula, which was intended to allow society to move on in a way which allowed females more freedom after birth. 3. Because, to quote Lenina Huxley, "Eeewww, disgusting! You mean... fluid transfer ?" --- We ended up nearly unknowingly starving both of our children through breastfeeding. We only knew…

[dead]

Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#134

Post by GuB-42 »

falcolas wrote: post #60
SQueeeeeL wrote: post #4

I think it's almost unfathomable for us to imagine how far we are from a "traditional" homosapien life. I read a book called "Hunt, Gather, Parent" where they describe the life of multiple 'less developed' societies, and how they spent a large portion of their life interacting with babies, adolescents, older children, pregnant relations. It's a miracle people are still able to reproduce at all given our isolation fro…

Forget the isolation; western civilization all but requires two income earners to have a "median" life. There's remarkably little time or money to raise a child. Median individual income: $40,000, poverty level for "replacement" families (two adults, two children): $30,000.

This, I think, is a perverse effect of feminism. Women wanted to be able to get a job, they ended up being forced to get a job, and men still have to work like they did before, so, who cares for the kids? It is an example of bringing equality by making everyone miserable, and it is not even equal: women still do more household tasks on average, except that now, it is in addition to their job.

The winners in this story are childless singles: women can now have a proper carrer without help from a man, and single men suffered essentially no downside, in fact it is a win since they are not expected to cover every expense the women they meet may have anymore.

Some countries are starting to notice that and are passing laws that give both mothers and fathers equal benefits, like parental leaves, bringing back what the result of feminism should have been: giving the option of stay-at-home moms and stay-at-home dads, also allowing fathers to assist mothers who are recovering from pregnancy or breastfeeding with household tasks instead of being forced to work.

Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#135

Post by jelliclesfarm »

Dove wrote: post #71

I started aggressively filtering my water (Berkey black + white filters) during my last pregnancy, and I was amazed how much better I felt and how much more water I wanted to drink. I was trying very hard to drink lots of water to support the pregnancy, and found it difficult. When I started filtering it, it became really easy and I felt a lot better to boot. I still get pretty low key dehydrated if I try to subsist…

Diet and water intake is very important for new mothers. Soupy foods with less fiber and that are easily digestible also make a big difference. I am going to look up the Flouride part. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#136

Post by oifjsidjf »

xupybd wrote: post #112
etrautmann wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with you until the fluoride bit. Do you have any medical evidence to suggest there's any issue with fluoride? Also why Berkey? They're extraordinarily expensive relative to alternatives, primarily for aesthetic gain.

My wife grew up in Vietnam. No fluoride in her water (she grew up on bottle water). The dental work is expensive and regular.

Many ancient cultures had no flouride and had perfect teeth.

It's the diet, flouride is a bandaid.

Read Weston Price's Nutrition and physical degeneration.

Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#137

Post by abfan1127 »

my_usernam3 wrote: post #43
abfan1127 wrote: post #6

anecdotally, my wife struggled to breastfeed our first born. The hospital lactation consultant wasn't very helpful. Ultimately, we found another who's knowledge and bedside manner was very good. I'd hypothesize the lack of generational homes leads to lack of information for new moms. Add on stress about things like jobs, careers, family expectations, and it becomes very difficult.

Spread some of that tribal knowledge, what worked for her?

I wish it was shareable. If she presented my son to her breasts with a certain posture, he would latch without any issues. If she didn't, then it would hurt her immensely. I want to say the lactation consultant "smashed" the boy's head to the breast, getting his mouth full before he had a chance to do anything, but its been 15 years. I think the biggest thing to learn is that works for one may not work for another. Keep searching with optimism.

Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#138

Post by EForEndeavour »

ye-olde-sysrq wrote: post #67
falcolas wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forget the isolation; western civilization all but requires two income earners to have a "median" life. There's remarkably little time or money to raise a child. Median individual income: $40,000, poverty level for "replacement" families (two adults, two children): $30,000.

worth noting that 2 children is below replacement rate, so someone needs to be having 3 kids too. which is becoming increasingly uncommon especially because of how many things change between 2 and 3 kids. (Notably: 2 carseats fit in ~any vehicle. 3 fit in very few vehicles unless you rush the oldest into a booster seat.)

Replacement fertility rates assume zero net immigration, which does not hold for much of the OECD. For example, Canada's total fertility rate has stayed below 2.1 since the 1970s and has fallen since to its current low of 1.4 (https://datacommons.org/place/country/CAN?category=Demograph...), but its population has been consistently growing since then due to immigration: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/960-fewer-babies-born-c...

Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#139

Post by egman_ekki »

sandermvanvliet wrote: post #111
causi wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think about how many millions of years were spent evolving the human brain, human instincts, and human child to adult development process to maximize the survival of children and hence our species. Now think about how psychotic it is, in light of that, to make small children sleep in a separate room from their parents. No wonder they have night terrors. Our society is utterly riddled with anti-natural facets like tha…

Having a baby around I can tell you that as far as human evolution goes it’s good we don’t have natural enemies because we’d all be eaten by now. Baby is tired: I shall make lots of noise so the predators will go away… right. Eaten I tell you!

Having a small kid also got me wondering how chimps cope with the same problems. I mean they’re 98% similar to us, so the babies must go through very similar stages…

Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#140

Post by valarauko »

xupybd wrote: post #112
etrautmann wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with you until the fluoride bit. Do you have any medical evidence to suggest there's any issue with fluoride? Also why Berkey? They're extraordinarily expensive relative to alternatives, primarily for aesthetic gain.

My wife grew up in Vietnam. No fluoride in her water (she grew up on bottle water). The dental work is expensive and regular.

Out of curiosity, why would growing up on bottled water lead to terrible dental outcomes? I grew up in India, where the water supply isn't fluoridated, and I didn't see dental health that was significantly worse than the US. We probably got most of our fluoride from ingesting bits of fluoridated toothpaste.
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