Thanks, Margaret, for the great find I just made.  While all the content
was very interesting to me, I have thus far stopped after reading Michael
Woolridge's, because I just have to recommend it so highly. I am printing
it out for future reference!

I recommend this site highly.

<I haven't had a chance to read the rest of the site, from a
"Breastfeeding: Science and Society" conference, convened by the
Pontifical Academy of Sciences and The Royal Society, in Vatican City in
May 1995.  But the table of contents,
http://www.unu.edu/unupress/food/8F174e/8F174E00.htm#Contents
looks intriguing, with discussion of work by Woolridge, Hartmann and
some other well-known researchers.>

I particularly like his term "fractured breastfeeding", and ". . . during
suckling the mother's breast distorts and conforms to the internal
geometry of the babymouth. . . .On a bottle teat. . . . . .there is
instead, a tendency for the soft tissues of the baby's mouth to deform to
accomodate the geometry of the teat. . . .'

Also, his reasoning on the subject of "calibration" of the milk supply to
the baby's needs, and ". . . extending the newborn infant the courtesy of
being regarded as an individual in its own right, rather than as an
imperfectly formed automaton to be directed as we see fit. . . .
.recognize that the newborn has as much right to choice as the mother,
although there is an obvious practical constraint on this choice being
"informed."

Jean
*******
K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC
Dayton, Ohio USA

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html