Many quite diverse peoples appear to have believed that semen poisons breast milk. According to Gigi Santow, writing in the journal Population Studies*, this belief was common in medieval Europe and "survived in France until at least the nineteenth century and has been documented in Sicily
as recently as the late 1970s.” Santow also notes that “The belief that semen
poisons a mother’s milk is widely held in sub-Saharan
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*"Coitus interruptus and the Control of Natural Fertility" by Gigi Santow, Population Studies, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Mar., 1995), pp. 19-43.
Sub-Saharan Africa, huh? Now there are some great scientific minds... Semen is poison to breast milk but doing prostitutes on the side of the road is hunky dory...
Posted by: Jake | March 30, 2007 at 07:05 AM
Well, there is something to be said for limiting sexual contact during lactation to put space between pregnancies--so yeah, it is kind of inadvertently scientific genius. Don't know about the roadside hooker thing, though :D
Posted by: Melissa Johnson | March 30, 2007 at 08:53 AM
I think the "poison" idea probably came from the correct observation that if a woman becomes pregnant too soon after a birth, it's unhealthy not only for the woman but for the hext child as well.
Posted by: gail | March 30, 2007 at 10:06 AM
Plus... if she's breast feeding and gets pregnant it could decrease the milk she produces for her nursing baby.
Posted by: Pixie | March 30, 2007 at 11:56 AM