Dear all: While there definitely is a place for human donor milk, I just did a detailed interpretation of the Schanler study. It clearly shows the advantages of mother's own milk and why we should do everything possible to promote this. I took only the significant findings. If there is statistical significance, the sample size IS adequate. Where there is doubt in this study is areas where the differences between the formula and the human donor milk groups were not detectable because of a low sample size. Here are the findings that are relavant and significant. 1) The bacterial and fungal isolates in the blood was significantly higher (p=0.028) among premature infants who were fed formula (45% increase) or human donor milk (52% increase) than among those who were fed their mother's own milk. 2) The cases of death and infection per 100 was significantly higher (p=0.012) among premature infants who were fed formula (81% higher) or human donor milk (64% higher) than among those who were fed their mother's own milk. 3) The proportion of infants who suffered more than one episode of Necrotising Enterocolitis (NEC) or Late Onset Sepsis (LOS) were significantly higher (p=0.023) among premature infants who were fed formula (5.3 x higher) or human donor milk (3.3 x higher) than among those who were fed their mother's own milk. 4) The duration of the hospital stay was significantly higher among premature infants who were fed formula (20% higher) or human donor milk (16% higher) than among those who were fed their mother's own milk. 5) The average duration of skin-to-skin contact was significantly lower (p=0.0001) among premature infants who were fed formula (2.8 x lower) or donor milk (3.0 x lower) than among those who were fed their mother's own milk. Further study with a larger sample size should determine whether human donor milk has an advantage over formula in preventing repeated episodes of NEC or LOS. As you can see the difference between a 5.3 times greater proportion of infants having more than one episode of these serious conditions or 3.3 times greater proportion of infants is potentially a substantial and biologically important difference. Paula Meier's has already demonstrated the cost-effectiveness of her style of promoting mother's own milk for premature infants. The benefits listed above clearly demonstrate that this should always be the first option available. Best regards, Susan Burger *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html