Here's the letter I wrote to the Washington Post concerning their editorial: Dear Editor: When examining who benefits from breastfeeding, your recent article could certainly benefit from some more investigative reporting. Several studies do in fact note direct and indirect positive impacts of breastfeeding on human intelligence. Premature babies fed human milk for only 3 weeks scored significantly better on intelligence scores at 7 to 8 years of age -- an improvement from breastmilk equivalent to the harm that would be identified in another line of research as caused by lead poisoning. By decreasing the incidence of ear infections, breastfeeding has an indirect impact on intelligence -- children with hearing loss due to repeated ear infections show increased learning difficulties at school age. When mothers access their own individual situations to determine if they can begin or continue breastfeeding, many times they only examine the direct time required to express milk or breastfeed the baby. However, because babies who are not breastfed have higher rates of illness, mothers may in fact merely be shifting their time investment from preventive well-child care to sick child care at the physician's office and emergency room. Furthermore, the direct costs involved in the purchase, preparation and feeding of artificial baby milks can easily run into the thousands of dollars, decreasing the working mother's earning potential. For the corporate perspective, several studies have demonstrated that mothers who are supported in breastfeeding often return to the worksite sooner, have a greater level of job satisfaction and loyalty, and have less time away from work for illness of themselves and their children. Such corporate savings from decreased employee turnover and absenteeism greatly outweigh the costs of implementing a system allowing women to incorporate breastfeeding- related activities into their working days. Workforce participation for women often results in grief and sadness at having to be away from their cherished children in the first place. Breastfeeding has been documented to help mothers separated from their infants give them an additional sense of connection. In fact, when asked, many breastfeeding mothers respond that the effort of breastfeeding is well worth the rewards of healthy, happy children. Please let us end this paternalistic debate on guilt and instead focus on how we can support women to be the best mothers they can be. Sincerely, Doraine Bailey, MA Working mother who breastfed for 22 months. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com