Truby King

And they very much believe that you should sort of try to discipline yourself against your natural urge to cuddle the child.

The good mother, said Truby King, refuses to give in to that desire to give a child snuggling warmth.

I mean, it's so weird that he uses such a tender phrase when he's trying to say, don't do it.

So, yeah, I think they did take it seriously.

There was a big movement.

This is in the 1920s and 1930s, but there was a big movement led by Truby King, the famous New Zealand expert, but lots of others were aboard, saying that if women got too much education and the size of their breasts would be reduced and they would be unable to breastfeed and therefore unable to raise the healthy race for the defence of the empire.

And these are these ideas were really promulgated by lots of people.

A lot of the books they appear in the forward is written by Australian officials, you know, in the various health departments.

And your maternal obligations are... are obligations to the race, you know, to the British race in these early books.

And so, you know, if you get anxious while you're breastfeeding, they will poison the milk and you'll poison your own baby.

If you don't breastfeed, then, you know, you're, well, Truby King says a mother who doesn't breastfeed shouldn't look a tabby cat in the eye.

You know, she should be that ashamed of herself.