Our Babies, Ourselves

In her book, Our Babies, Ourselves, Meredith Small drives home how unique Western culture, American culture especially, is in the independance it demands from infants. Being the anthropologist she is there are many stories about how infants are treated in other types of cultures and societies from the present day hunter-gatherer to the urban Japanese household. Most of these cultures are more baby centric than the hospital delivery intervention promoting, daycare loving culture America encourages for the most part. 

     One of her primary points is that while there may be a push toward independance when it comes to the ability to compete in a western job market, babies themselves are much more in the control of evolutionary rather than societal values. She asserts that when it comes to babies we may be providing the best and healthiest environment for them if we listen to some aspects of less advanced cultures. The scientifically proven advantages of breast feeding that many of us have heard already found their way into Small's chapter on the subject. She also posits many possible connections between infant health and co-sleeping, even going to far as to suggest co-sleeping may reduce the risk of SIDS. 

     I think there is something to be said for the creative thinking that American individuality promotes. But I can understand that babies may not yet be ready for that aspect of our culture. After reading this book I have been put face to face with how much my culture affects what I value as a parent. I saw that the neediness of babies is such an affront to our western sensibilities that we actually make things more difficult for ourselves in some ways. Did you realize that only in western modern culture is lack of milk production a major breast feeding problem? Small suggests this may be due to separation at birth, or possibly anxiety on the part of the mother, who often doesn't have a ready support network to aid and encourage her. Small also points to infrequency of feeding as a possible problem, stating that in some cultures babies feed every 15 minutes. 

     So a question becomes how much should we bend culture for the comfort and well being of our babies or do we continue to require them to adjust to our demands? I think most families are struggling to find a happy medium among the loud advice of society and family, their own instinct and the new information science is providing. I think the future will hold interesting compromises for the benefit of our babies.