Cynthia wrote: > > On the other hand, even nursing twins, my period was back in about 4-5 months. > > I don't doubt that it works for some women, but I'd be reluctant to > assume it was this way for a majority.
I nursed my son until he was 18 months, and nursed exclusively for the first 6 months. My period was back at 9 months. I also wouldn't overlook the extreme popularity of sending the child out to a wetnurse in various times and places. Granted, this was done at least partially to allow the woman to become pregnant more quickly, but it would mean that at least some women who had children would not have experienced long gaps caused by breastfeeding. In addition, although most women married, not all women did, and pubertal or pre-pubertal marriages were often the exception rather than the rule. Also, not all women remarried if they were widowed which would lead to menstruation. So I don't think that we can safely make the assumption that menstruation was such an uncommon experience for pre-modern European women that they didn't have a way of dealing with it. My guess is that some sort of belt arrangement was used, although I have seen an undated woodcut of women in a bath house were one of the women is wearing something cut like bikini underwear, with ties on the side. Although there is no way of knowing *why* she was wearing such a thing, it might have been menstruation related. -Katie -- _______________________________________________ Search for businesses by name, location, or phone number. -Lycos Yellow Pages http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10 _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
