Hi all (again!)

Add me to the list of folks appalled by Prevention Magazine's latest
publication venture, the New Mom Magazine. I sent them the following letter
on Saturday. It will give you more of an idea of the kind of garbage in this
thing!

October 12, 1996

Debbie Lasso
New Mom Reader Survey
33 E. Minor St.
Emmaus, PA 18098

Dear Ms. Lasso,

I bought the New Mom magazine the other day and found the survey
in the back. I am not a "new" mom--my children are 13 and 9, so I
had other reasons for purchasing it. And since the survey assumes
that the reader is a new mom, I decided to put my comments in a
letter form.

First of all, I have been a subscriber to Prevention for years and
respect the information that comes from Rodale Press. I was glad to
see that Rodale was publishing a magazine for mothers, because I
was expecting the same caliber of information.

I'm an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and
freelance author. It was the cover with the title of the breastfeeding
article that made me purchase the magazine. Unfortunately, I was
severely disappointed in this article, both in tone and in content.
Prevention and Rodale Press have never been afraid to present
health information in an honest and truthful manner before, so it was
a surprise to read this article. You have, in effect, succeeded in
giving moms permission to choose a less healthy lifestyle for their
babies and themselves. Just a few cases in point:

"Breastfeeding is tough. In the early days, you'll be nursing every 2
hours or so, depending on the appetite of your baby. And breast
soreness, leaking and bleeding are common."

While it is true that new babies want to nurse frequently--and often
more frequently than every 2 hours--it is because the breast milk is
so easily digested. Formula sits in the gut for a long time, creating a
false sense of fullness. Some studies even show that the deep sleep
that often accompanies a formula feed is SO deep that the babies
are more susceptible to SIDS. And breast soreness, leaking and
bleeding are more likely to occur in a culture that is less than
breastfeeding-friendly. When moms are adequately supported and
informed, these problems decrease dramatically. New Mom could
have helped alleviate these troubles rather than add to them.

"In a study of 59 nursing mothers and 42 moms who bottle-fed their
babies, researchers at the Universities of California and Illinois
found that 58% of the breastfed babies and 90% of the bottle-fed
babies were sick once or more before their first birthday."

Fascinating. In the first place, no respectable research team would
dismiss a 32% difference between groups. In the second place,
these figures don't even distinguish between how MANY times these
babies got sick, how often they were hospitalized, or even the
severity of the illness. It also fails to mention how they defined
"nursing."

Jan Riordan, EdD, RN, a well respected expert in the field of
lactation, has recently submitted a paper for publication entitled "The
Cost of Not Breastfeeding." Excerpts from the abstract follow:

     "Potential health care cost savings from breastfeeding in four
medical diagnoses were analyzed. Results showed the following
potential savings in health care costs: Infant diarrhea, $630 million;
respiratory syncytial virus, $31 million; insulin-dependent diabetes
mellitus, $72 million; and otitis media, $660 million for a total of $1.3
BILLION potential savings in health care costs using only 4
medical diagnoses. Breastfeeding also improves intellectual
development of children according to new medical research studies.
The benefits of more intelligent children on society is enormous
even though it cannot be directly measured in terms of dollars.
Finally, it was calculated that if WIC mothers breastfeed, yearly cost
savings for basic food packages would be $2,665,715."

I found it interesting that the author of the article--and her
credentials--are never identified.

The rest of your article is filled with half-truths and misinformation I
didn't expect to see from the Prevention folks. Will you also be
coming out with an article rationalizing why moms who really don't
want to quit smoking shouldn't have to?

You owe it to your readers and your reputation to do better than this.

Sincerely,



Melissa Clark Vickers, MEd, IBCLC
Editor, Moms & Babies

cc to Catherine M. Cassidy, Executive Editor, New Moms