Re: Linda J. Smith's comments. Seems I got misunderstood on that one. Of
course you can and must touch breasts to help people who have problems with
them. I was actually not even intending to make a big deal out of breast
touching, but to use it as an example or symbol to make a point about the
public health approach. The point I was intending to make is that, whatever
may be necessary for people with problems, it need not have any relevance
for how to prevent those problems in healthy, normal people. It depends in
part on how widespread the problem is and in part on what the cause of the
problem is. I have too often seen recommendations that say this or that
should be taught to all women in order for them to be able to avoid
problems. But (1) those problems may be too uncommon to justify investing
in doing that for every women, (2) since lack of confidence in one's own
ability to breast feed may be part of the cause of many problems, too much
of a "helping hand" in advance of proven need may work against success for
many, and (3) rules, regulations, guideance, instructions and trained
professionals all tend to move us toward the intellectual part of our
brains, not the part that runs the breastfeeding. Again, when breastfeeding
does not work smoothly, when there are problems, then of course we must do
what we can, "hands on," to help. I was only referring to the need for
caution in training health workers as to what they need to do for all
women, for example under the BFHI.

Ted Greiner, PhD
Senior Lecturer in International Nutrition
Unit for International Child Health, Entrance 11
Uppsala University
751 85 Uppsala
Sweden

phone +46 - 18 515198
fax   +46 - 18 515380
home phone +46 - 8 191397 (can be used as fax also)
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