[metmom]

My mother told me that in the mid 1950s, new mothers would often be given medications to dry up their milk because formula was considered safer. I'm sure there were economic reasons involved as well, but the point is that this was a stupid then as the people are now who pooh-pooh the need for formula.

I’m a mid-50’s baby and my mom told me that in those days, they considered breastmilk inferior. When she had me, the dr asked her, *You’re not going to breast feed, are you?*

She said she wanted to but gave in and did formula. They gave her those hormone pills to dry her up and she told me they didn’t work.

FWIW, she died from very aggressive breast cancer in her mid-60’s. I suspect that getting those hormone treatments five times contributed to it.

Also, breastfeeding is very protective against breast cancer.

[Vigilanteman]

So sorry about your Mom.

My Mom lived to the ripe old age of 92, in part I think, because she was an educated woman and refused the hormone shots through seven children.

In those days, women with graduate degrees were so rare that the local state university actually recruited her for a faculty position in 1966. By the time she retired 20 years later, she was still making less than the local unionized public school teachers with half the experience.

All things considered, though, the stupidity rampant in the 1950s pales in comparison to the stupidity rampant in our modern era.