Here's one for the true breastfeeding nerds (myself included):
A new study of 18th and 19th century bones sheds light on the effect of economic change on breastfeeding patterns in London at that time.
The study used a method called stable isotope ratio analysis to examine the ribs of 72 skeletons (yikes) of babies and children who died in Spitafields, London. The authors concluded that 18 were being exclusively breastfed, and the rest were either not breastfeeding at all or were being mixed fed. One common breastmilk substitute at the time: flour and water.
Both wealthy women (who sometimes hired wet nurses) and poor women (who were starting to work outside the home in the new, industrialized economy) did not breastfeed, or did not breastfeed exclusively.
I'm not convinced that this information can be generalized, because the bones analyzed came from a population that died early, but it's an interesting project, nonetheless.
The authors note:
Artificially fed infants had higher mortality rates than breastfed infants in the first six months of life," writes Nitsch. "The mortality of infants who were dry fed from birth was estimated to be particularly high, usually above 50 per cent and sometimes reaching as high as 90 per cent, due to earlier exposure of the infant to pathogens from contaminated foods, a higher risk of malnutrition, and the loss of immunological protection.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
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