Breastfeeding
April 14th 2005
See www.thewaynatureintended.com
March 16th 2001
It seems they have finally found a health disadvantage in extended breast feeding -
"Duration of breast feeding is related to arterial stiffness".
Do read the mass of rapid responses to both the editorial and the article itself.
For example, there is a letter from Luis Gabriel Cuervoa member of BMJ editorial board and
Clinical Editor for `Clinical Evidence.
He writes:
"The misleading publicity that the paper by Leeson et al[1] is receiving in the media
proves that the main limitations of this paper were not sufficiently highlighted. Nor were
the consequences of limiting breastfeeding to four months...."
"The paper does not address any relevant clinical outcome. It is a small
observational study..."
"BMJ has a responsibility not only to publish evidence. It also has to foresee the
effect of the published paper on global health and clearly address it. The breach that
allowed the media to manipulate the results and jump into the conclusion stating that
breastfeeding more than four months causes cardiovascular disease is inadmissible and will
for sure be commercially exploited by unscrupulous purposes, here and in the developing
world, with terrible consequences..."
Josh, my four year old grandson, came home from school with a worksheet on which he had
to place the correct word by a picture. One of the words was “feeding” and the
picture showed a baby feeding from a bottle. Underneath the picture were the words,
“One week”. It was part of a Channel 4 education series.
I raised this miseducation of 4 year olds into thinking that bottle feeding was normal
for a newborn baby with Channel 4, and have a response from the Education Officer saying
that , “We wanted to use the image of a bottle...”
Breastfeeding saves lives, artificial feeding kills – especially in situations of
poverty, malnutrition and poor hygiene.
A paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol 285, No 4, January
2001, describes a huge research project, a multicentre randomised controlled trial, to
assess the effects of breastfeeding information in Belarus (a former Soviet republic). It
involved 17046 mother-baby pairs. Women were randomly assigned to receive help and advice
about breastfeeding or to continue with their usual infant feeding practices.
The intervention worked. At 3 and 6 months babies were significantly more likely to be
exclusively breastfed, and at 12 months the mothers who were helped were often still
breastfeeding. There was a reduction in gastro-intestinal infections by 40% and in excema
by 46%.
An interesting note.
All Western studies have shown that exclusive breastfeeding reduces the incidence of
coughs, colds and snuffles and other more serious respiratory infection. But this did not
happen in Belarus. Babies there rarely catch colds. The researchers suggest that this is
because mothers have three years obligatory maternity leave in Belarus, so that instead of
going to day care centres babies stay at home, and are thus not exposed to a high rate of
infection from other children. They noted that there is a high rate of breastfeeding for
more than 3 months using the control groups.
“The real and clear message is that breastfeeding, especially prolonged
breastfeeding, affects child health, particularly in the area of gastro-intestinal
infections and atopic excema in the first year of life.”
They will be following up these children in future years, monitoring their growth and
development, and documenting the development of chronic illnesses. “The immediate
benefits of breastfeeding have been confirmed once more. Ideally, the long-term benefits
will also be demonstrated by this research group.”
[Michael S Kramer et al, `Promotion of Breastfeeding Intervention Trial (PROBIT), A
Randomized Trial in the Republic of Belarus', Journal of the American Medical
Association pp413-464, Vol 285, No 4 , January 24/31 2001]
Sheila wrote an article on Breastfeeding
and Modesty for the September issue of MIDIRS Digest.
A new, information-packed book on the economics and politics of
breastfeeding.
The Milk of Human Kindness
A global factsheet on the economic value of breastfeeding
By the International Women Count Network and World Alliance for
Breastfeeding Action
Publisher: Crossroads
This book covers subjects such as the cost of replacing human milk with formula, for a
household and for a country. Money spent sabotaging breastfeeding, and breastfeeding as
unwaged caring work.
Painting of a breastfeeding
mother by Tom Bower |
Writing in the Independent, Tuesday September 12th,
Deborah Orr said:
| “I continue to harbour, a deep well-spring of resentment towards
childbirth guru Sheila Kitzinger. She assured me in her book, The New Pregnancy and
Childbirth, that I would always, always have milk in my breasts for my baby. Rubbish.
It wasn't for ages that I realised that she was wrong and that my baby was in agony every
evening because I'd let him swallow air all day long as he sucked away on my over-demanded
breasts. After three months I defied Ms Kitzinger, and started giving my boy supplementary
formula to assuage his endless hunger, and a dummy to satisfy his need to suck.
Nirvana.” |
Sheila has nowhere said what this journalist
claimed. In The New Pregnancy & Childbirth section on breastfeeding she stresses the
importance of getting the baby well latched on the breast. And she discusses her '24 hour
peak production plan' when a mother thinks she does not have enough milk – going to
bed with the baby for 24 hours and offering her the breast whenever she seems to want to
feed.
Patricia Wise, Co-Chair of the Breastfeeding Counsellors' Panel
of the National Childbirth Trust, responded with a letter:
| “I was sorry to read that Deborah Orr still feels angry towards
Sheila Kitzinger. It seems to be a case of wanting to shoot the messenger for a
misunderstood message, in this case one about breastfeeding. After the birth of a baby,
the loss of the placenta triggers the production of the hormones responsible for making
milk. However, for a sufficient quantity of milk to continue, there must be adequate
removal of milk already there. A mother's milk supply will decrease if not enough of her
milk is removed, either by her baby or by a breast pump.
Everyone who is in any way involved with breastfeeding mothers needs to know that
“the more the baby takes, the more the mother makes” and that something is wrong
if breastfeeding hurts. If a mother does find that breastfeeding is uncomfortable or
painful, and particularly if her baby seems hungry after feeds, she needs skilled help
from a breastfeeding counsellor or suitably trained health professional. Her baby needs to
be helped to go on to her breast in the correct way and thus feed efficiently.
There is sadly still a great deal of ignorance and misunderstanding in the UK about how
breastfeeding works” |
|
20 January 2004
April
2000 A new edition of 
Spanish
(2003)
OSCAR SAGGI MONDADORI
