Yes, I know, I could have made this case a lot more convincing. But that would have taken me two weeks, plus-minus. And it was right now someone with three thousand times as many readers as me talked about breastfeeding. No one will care about what I think of breastfeeding in two weeks, that's for sure.
Instead I hoped that someone could feel inspired by the idea of comparing countries and decades. It only takes a quick internet search to discover how remarkably breastfeeding rates differ between countries and decades. I discovered that when I was expecting my first child and I wanted to share that information with others.
Thinking about it, it would be easy to make a good study with Swedish data. I can't find that data openly on the internet, but I know it exists and is rather easily accessible for important people.
1. In 1970 about 35 percent of babies were exclusively breastfed at two months of age. Then that figure rose very rapidly, to 50 percent within a couple of years and then it increased to about 75 percent in 1986.
2. All Swedish men had to enlist at the military and take a simple IQ test until the early 2000s. That test has been used in research multiple times.
What should be done here is to combine breastfeeding statistics with results on the armed forces' test, year for year. Take a close look at those years of birth when there was a surge in breastfeeding rates in the 1970s. Then repeat with data from Norway and Denmark, which should also exist.
Yes, I know, I could have made this case a lot more convincing. But that would have taken me two weeks, plus-minus. And it was right now someone with three thousand times as many readers as me talked about breastfeeding. No one will care about what I think of breastfeeding in two weeks, that's for sure.
Instead I hoped that someone could feel inspired by the idea of comparing countries and decades. It only takes a quick internet search to discover how remarkably breastfeeding rates differ between countries and decades. I discovered that when I was expecting my first child and I wanted to share that information with others.
Low hanging fruit, Parrhesia. You've got a blog, right? Give it a solid post and at least I'll read it! ;)
Thinking about it, it would be easy to make a good study with Swedish data. I can't find that data openly on the internet, but I know it exists and is rather easily accessible for important people.
1. In 1970 about 35 percent of babies were exclusively breastfed at two months of age. Then that figure rose very rapidly, to 50 percent within a couple of years and then it increased to about 75 percent in 1986.
2. All Swedish men had to enlist at the military and take a simple IQ test until the early 2000s. That test has been used in research multiple times.
What should be done here is to combine breastfeeding statistics with results on the armed forces' test, year for year. Take a close look at those years of birth when there was a surge in breastfeeding rates in the 1970s. Then repeat with data from Norway and Denmark, which should also exist.