Thank you to the various posters on this, and to Janice Reynolds for providing the link to the article from this interview.
My current research interest is in cross-feeding, i.e. sharing breastfeeding or expressed breastmilk (EBM), usually between close relations or close friends. (I believe a better term could be "co-feeding".). In my most recent study on this, which I am still writing up as an article, I found that most women, even where they thought they didn't screen the other mother, actually did. With few exceptions, most knew the other family well, had similar lifestyles and values, and would not let their precious babies receive the milk of a woman whose lifestyle was less than healthy, or who was on medications or illegal drugs.
The article from Good Morning America talked about a list of infections that is somewhat dated. The old concerns were transmission of syphilis and tuberculosis. In my country (Australia), syphilis has been screened for in the routine pregnancy blood tests for generations, and continues today, though most mothers are unaware of this. Pulmonary TB was screened for in a national chest x-ray campaign from (about) 1950, depending on the State, and was discontinued after about 30 years when very few new cases were identified. Thus, mothers in the 1970s and erly 1980s, at the start of the years covered in my new study, had very little risk of transmission of these diseases when sharing breastfeeding or EBM with another healthy woman. Since then, new cases of TB are apparently related to immigration or refugees.
This unpublished research of mine is on the mothers' *experiences* and what women actually did, 1972-2007 - whereas my two articles on wet nursing, cross-feeding and milk banking published this year are historical in nature. The first was written for health professionals and uses recent media reports to interduce the historical overview. The second article is more academic and was published in a journal for medical historians.
1) Thorley V. Sharing breast milk: wet nursing, cross-nursing, and milk donations. Breastfeeding Rev 2008;16(1):25-29.
2) Thorley V. Breasts for hire and shared breastfeeding: wet nursing and cross-feeding in Australia, 1900-2000. Health & History 2008; 10(1): 86-107. [Available at www.historycooperative.org Click on Health & History on the list of journals on the right side of the homepage and then click on vol. 10, no. 1.]
I am interested in corresponding, off list, with anyone with information or contacts on "milk siblingship" for children who've received the same milk, in a variety of cultures. There is literature on this, mostly on Islamic cultures, but I would like to find more about milk siblingship in other cultures, e.g. Jewish and Greek, preferably published sources.
Cheers
Virginia
Dr Virginia Thorley, OAM, PhD, IBCLC, FILCA
Honorary Research Fellow
School of History, Philosophy, Religion & Classics
The University of Queensland, QLD 4072
Australia
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:15:37 -0600
From: Janice Reynolds <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:
Yes, it aired today - they moved it back to Monday - even the mom
interviewed missed seeing it.
But you can watch the video here:
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5462523
And here is the article:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/story?id=5459697&page=1
Janice Reynolds
-----Original Message-----
I just watched the GMA cross-nursing clip. It was on at 8:06 pacific time.
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Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:30:42 -0400
From: Pat Young <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: GMA Cross Nursing clip
Thanks for the report. Sounds positive. Pat in SNJ
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