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Ms. Trafford's article contains a number of false assumptions, which lead her to
what is, for the most part, a very misleading article.

First: She assumes that all the benefits of breastfeeding accrue only to the
child.  This is false.  Mothers who breastfeed derive substantial health
benefits of their own: lower rates of breast and ovarian cancers, lower rates of
osteoporosis, and quicker loss of pregnancy weight.  Employers of women who
breastfeed their babies also get benefits from fewer absences from work to care
for sick babies and lower health health care costs.  Society at large benefits
from healthier citizens.

Second, she assumes that employment is the primary barrier to breastfeeding.
However, the rates of breastfeeding among employed and stay-at-home mothers is
about the same.  Clearly there are other influences on infant feeding choices.
 One major factor she fails to mention is the intrusive and misleading
marketing programs of the formula manufacturers.  They invade the doctor's
office, the maternity ward, and the media to peddle the false promise that
their products are close to human milk.

Working and breastfeeding are not, in fact, incompatible.  All a mother needs to
express her milk is a few minutes, a little privacy, and a place to store her
milk.  Since work breaks are mandated by federal law, almost any working woman
is capable of maintaining a milk supply, if she is motivated and receives
encouragement.  Even where a mother cannot express her milk, she can breastfeed
during the 12-16 hours a day she can be with her baby, and feed the baby formula
during the work day.

Of course, if a mother does not receive accurate information about the health
consequences of choosing human milk over artificial feeding, she will have no
motivation to try this.  I feel that your article does a grave disservice to
working mothers by down-playing the facts set forth in the AAP new breastfeeding
guidelines.

For a physician's perspective on guilt and informed choices, I suggest you look
at Dr. Jack Newman's article at the following URL.  Perhaps he will write a
guest editorial on this topic for you.

http://www.parentsplace.com/cgi-bin/objects/features/wbfweek3.data

Rachael Hamlet
<address and phone omitted>