Magda Sachs wrote:
> as I understand it, the women were randomised to either
> formula feeding or breastfeeding at 32 weeks of pregnancy, so either
> something happened between 32 weeks and the births to change the cohorts,
or
> randomisation did not produce two comparable groups.
>
Because of non-compliance, there was overlapping between the groups in the
Kenyan study, blurring the differences between feeding in the two groups.
I'm not happy about the definitions, either.  A study in Durban, South
Africa, by Coutsoudis et al, carefully differentiated their three groups,
i.e. exclusively breastfed, mixed feeding, and exclusively artificially fed.
The authors' recent re-examination of their data, since the above doubts
about maternal health were raised, has found that there was *no* increased
risk of death or illness among breastfeeders.  It is important to read the
actual paper, to get the full discussion.
    For that, once more I refer Lactetters to the May issue of AIDS:

Coutsoudis A, et al. Are HIV-infected women who breastfeed at increased risk
of mortality? HIV 2001;15(5):653-655.

         Virginia
            in sunny Brisbane
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