Maternity: Back to the Breast

"A pair of substantial mammary glands," said Oliver Wendell Holmes the Elder in 1867, "has the advantage over the two hemispheres of the most learned professor's brain in the art of compounding a nutritious fluid for infants." Although eminently sound, Dr. Holmes's medical opinion was ignored by three generations of American women striving for female emancipation. The breast's function as fans et origo of a perfectly balanced natural diet was largely ignored. Now there are signs that highly educated and sophisticated American women are moving back to breast feeding as the best...