ABSTRACT
One practical implication of these general findings is that it is necessary to be extremely cautious in using the duration of breast feeding as a valid measure of maternal feeling. The
mother who feeds her baby for 'the recommended six to nine months' is a statistically rare phenomenon in Nottingham today; and it is clear that to take early weaning from breast to bottle as an indication of maternal rejection, an interpretation often made in psychiatric practice, is to assume a cultural context which no longer exists. Psychiatric interpretation too often tends to work within the cultural framework of the therapist himself, so that a judgment which might be valid within his own social class may have no reference at all to the habits and expectations at a different economic level. In this chapter we have discussed the breast-feeding habits of a representative cross-section of the population; but infant feeding is a part of human behaviour which is markedly affected by occupational class, and we shall discuss these differences later on.
