However, in a commentary on Professor Haig’s
article, Dr. James J. McKenna, an anthropologist
at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana,
pointed out that breastfeeding carried a range
of benefits for mother and baby, which might
outweigh the negative effects of interrupted
sleep, suggesting that night-waking may not be
an evolutionary strategy to prevent the birth of
siblings, but merely one to keep a baby as well-
fed and healthy as possible.
James McKenna
Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C.,
Professor of Anthropology