If I had time and money, I would do a study regarding socio economic and age in relation to opinions/views/comfort level with breastfeeding. I would hypothesize that there is a shift in the socioeconomic status of individuals who are comfortable with both public and private breastfeeding, in relation to age. To further refine that I would say that hypothesis:

1. Among the “current parent” age bracket (i.e. those individuals of average child bearing age on the date of the study +/- 5 years to create a window). I would guess that the upper middle to upper income brackets (inc. individuals who would be in those income brackets who are either voluntarily or involuntarily unemployed currently and therefore not in one of those categories) have a higher tolerance and comfort with breastfeeding in general and esp with extended nursing and nursing in public.

2. Among generations prior to the “current parent” age bracket, I am guessing that lower socioeconomic stati are more comfortable with extended nursing, nursing in public, and nursing in general.

Here is why I think this. In previous generations, nursing was seen as an activity undertaken by individuals who could not “afford” to purchase formula, therefore, the lower socioeconomic brackets in the older populations, are more comfortable with all of the nursing phenomenon, because they were around it. Further, something my dad said to me while I was nursing struck a chord that makes me believe this as well. “Any farmer around is going to be all for nursing, they know that they can give a calf a milk supplement when its born, but, its just not as good as if a calf nurses from the cow. (I believe there is a trend to ‘wet nurse’ with livestock if there are issues with the mother, but that is just in my head…not research to prove it).” Farmer’s stereotypically, are in a lower income status bracket than the general population, especially with the rise of corporate farms. Additionally, to pull from personal experience, while I was still working hard to get Amelia to latch, we were at George’s parents house, and his mother, from an upper middle class home, was intrigued by the whole process, as it was not something she had attempted or been exposed to. His dad was blase’ about it, coming from a lower middle to lower socioeconomic background in a historically rural and lower socioeconomic state (Arkansas), as he had been exposed to it. In his own somewhat crude manner, this point was driven somewhat home when one of grandpa’s brothers was at George’s parents house, and Amelia got hungry and a little fussy, “well, just whip out a boob and feed her,” he says.

Obviously, I am drawing a hypothesis from anecdotal experiences, but I think that it would hold true throughout a cross section of the population.

Random tangent of the day…just wait, there could be another.

You go, Dionna!