It has nothing to do with love, just that women were duped for generations into beleive everything their MD said as coming from God Himself.
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Oh...that was my mother...if the doctor prescribed something and told her to stand on her head to take it, she would. And like I said, while the doctors she consulted bereated her for not being able to breastfeed, they really didn't help her or give her advice -- just criticism. Her instruction on the subject came from the hospital nurse, friends and family. That's what was available at that time in the small town where we lived.
In her day, there was strong encouragement to breastfeed...which is why, along with all the criticism, I think she felt so guilty when she could not do it. But I know what you mean about breastfeeding falling out of favor. I think it did for a time somewhere in the 70's around the time of women's lib. Then it came back again in the conservative 80's.
With all the confusion about breastfeeding being in today, and out tomorrow, no wonder some mothers did not or could not do it.
I don't think it had anything to do with woman's lib. It was a faddish belief that scientific was better than natural, and scientific schedules were better than the old fashioned "feed 'em when they're hungry" approach.
By the time my first child was born in 1974, attitudes were changing and breast feeding was back on the rise.