The recent thread on breastfeeding and immunity prompted me to pull out the
article titled, Human milk - Tables of the antimicrobial factors and
microbiological contaminants relevant to human milk  from the website
http:///www.latrobe.edu.au/www/microbio/milk.hmtl which someone posted to
Lactnet in 1997.

The tables list antimicrobial factors found in human milk and what they are
shown to be effective against,  in vitro:

Included of the childhood diseases but not limited to are :

Secretory IgA   found to be effective against H.influenza,  B.pertussis,
Polio types 1,2,3, rotavirus, mumps virus, hepatits B, Hepatitis C virus,
measles virus

IgG to be effective against:   H.influenza,  B.pertussis, rubella ,
rotavirus

and on and on and on, see the web site for more information.

While breastfeeding is not a panacea, certainly it offers protection against
many childhood diseases that ABM does not. As well, it does not increase the
risk of certain maladies like ABM does.

Someone posted that many parents who choose not to vaccinate choose to
breastfeed and wondered why. I can share that nearly all of my homebirthing
clients breastfeed and few chose to use the vaccines, some selectively
vaccinate. This is a well educated and well heeled population. It seems to
me that the primary concern is to support the natural process of health
through healthy living which includes adequate rest, clean water and good
nutrition of which breastfeeding is the best! These families tend to use
home remedies including bed rest and tincture of time rather than
acetophenomen and antibiotics to treat illnesses that are self healing over
time.

Warmly,

Lisa Boisvert-Mackenzie, Midwife
Palau
West Caroline Islands
Pacific Ocean

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