I hear you, Jean.

The thing is that because "raises the risks of" is, indeed, tried and true
medicalese, I think lots of people just don't hear it -- don't absorb it.

"more likely to have asthma, etc" strikes in the gut precisely because it's
comprehensible -- it's language that the hearer really can take on board.

In general, I am temperamentally and professionally inclined to stick with
plain English.  If I didn't want them to be hearing it I could just save my
breath, right?

I guess my spot to draw the line of not being so brutal to the vulnerable new
parents is that I wouldn't usually include "more likely to have some
childhood cancers" in that list, even though I think it's true, just because
I think it's too big and heavy a stick to beat them with at that stage.

But I will chew further on your suggestion -- insufficient compassion being
not only intrinsically a bad thing, but also lousy for future bf rates...

Elisheva

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