Mine wrote: >This side effect seems to reinforce traditional gender roles .. If you > don't breast feed your child, you are not considered to be a real mother. When I was a baby (late 1950s) the fad in the USA was to get babies as quickly as possible to a bottle. Nursing a child, at that time, was considered old- fashioned and great social pressure existed to use a bottle. And, in the "old days" in the USA well-to-do women didn't nurse at all but hired someone else (a nurse-maid)to nurse their children. And, the attempts of evil MNCs to get poor women in poor countries to buy formula -- rather than nursing -- is well- documented. They were somewhat successful in changing social practices in many countries. The rise of social pressure to nurse a baby as long as possible returned in the 1980s, I think, associated in some way with conservative trends then current in the USA. Certainly nursing can make holding a job very difficult. (This doesn't mean this return of social pressure to nurse was bad: there are certain health advantages for a baby who nurses for at least a number of months.) But, the biological ability of women to nurse does not mean society forces women to nurse (as when I was a baby in the late 1950s and in "the old days"). Biology does not force women to nurse; society does. And, it is not clear what "capitalism wants" as far as nursing goes. In recent years social conservatives (who are also pro-capitalist) and certain capitalist firms have disagreed over the desirability of nursing. Eric
