It would probably be pre emptive and inappropriate to comment  on these
results without the study yet having reached publication. However in
response to your concerns regarding recommendations that number of feeds be
reduced as a preventative measure:
> Women who breastfed less than 10 times a day had a
> lower risk, possibly because this results in less nipple trauma. This
> finding suggests nursing mothers may reduce their risk of developing a
> mastitis if they limit the number of times they breastfeed to no more than
> 10 times per day.

 I would however like to say there are extreme difficulties in assessing
"feeds/day" in any research study. The question of defining exactly what
equates to "one breastfeed" is a nightmare faced by many breastfeeding
researchers (often only realised post data collection) and should always be
clearly stated in the methodology (although I must say I have certainly been
guilty of not doing so).

Is is one feed = 1 breast?, or if you feed from one breast then change
nappies, burp, play etc and offer the second breast half an hour later, is
this one or two breastfeeds? And is this different from offering first
breast and then second breast straight afterwards, without a break in
between? Or indeed different from the mother who feeds only one breast "per
feed"?; if the baby "cluster feeds" over a period of a couple of hours is
this one big breastfeed or split into several different feeds - somehow ? If
bub goes to the breast but just wanted a cuddle and play and maybe removed
10ml or something - is this a breastfeed? Etc. etc. there are lots of
different permutations - Which become further confounded if there is no
operational definition in the methodology and mothers are asked to
subjectively say how many feeds they think they have given in a day. Each
mother is bound to have a different idea of what she calls "a breastfeed".

Regards
Cathy Fetherston RM MSc IBCLC
Western Australia

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