Marsha reminds us of the days when we used to have to search huge books 
called Index Medicus and BioAbstracts to find keywords, which were 
crossreferenced to 12 or 16 digit numbers, which corresponded to 
abstracts in the back of the book (a quarterly significantly larger than 
the largest textbook) to see if the article might be helpful. Then one 
had to find the actual paper journal in the stacks, and photocopy it. I 
for one am extremely grateful for technology, and for the ability to 
search hundreds of articles in a keystroke and access pdf copies in minutes.

Now all we need is for full text access to be less prohibitively expensive.

Catherine Watson Genna BS, IBCLC  NYC  cwgenna.com


On 1/23/2011 2:45 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> Hey Diane--Yes, that was me a few years ago. I just went to Pub Med and put in the search term "breastfeeding." The number of articles that were returned was 29,747. You are going to have quite a mountain of research for your graphic comparison! I am so grateful that we have such easy access to this data through the magic of technology. I remember years ago having to sort through this stuff  by hand, journal by journal in the medical school library!
>
>
> Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
> Weston, MA
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Date:    Sun, 23 Jan 2011 10:51:40 -0500
> From:    Diane Wiessinger<[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: can 13,000 studies be wrong?
>
> Probably 10 or more years ago, I *believe* it was Marsha Walker who said
> there were about 13,000 studies on infant feeding, a very few of which
> *weren't* in favor of breastfeeding.  That captivated my imagination.  I
> pictured this tall, tall, tall stack on one side, and a pitiful few inches
> on the other.  I'd love to hear the updated figure, but undoubtedly the
> pro-breastfeeding stack is now mountainous and the not-so-positive stack is
> somewhat higher than it was but still not high enough to sit on comfortably.
> Wouldn't it be *fun* for someone to do the math and create the visual?  Yes,
> there are studies out there that don't say such great things about
> breastfeeding.  Of course there are; those are the newsmakers and that's
> what everyone loves to see.  But my gosh, compared with a mountain?  I
> understand there's still a flat earth society out there somewhere, too, but
> I don't think astronomers feel threatened.  It's a tribute to the
> effectiveness of the marketing industry that *we* still need to work so
> hard, given the size of the two piles.
>
> Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY  USA
>
>
>
>
>
>
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