Fascinating stuff, Kathy D....

It was good to see Spence on Lactnet!

He is one of our local heros here in Newcastle where he practised for many,
many years as one of the very first UK paediatricians (I have a feeling he
was a Scot by birth). There is an Institute of Child Health named after him
in Newcastle, where research goes on in his name.  He was also (I think -
not checking, sorry) he was the brains behind the Red Spot study, also
known as the 1000 families study, which began here and followed a cohort of
babies from cradle upwards, starting in the 1940s, and called Red Spot
because that's how the files of the babies were distinguished : ) (Nothing
to do with skin blemishes!)  This was one of the first major studies that
combined epidemiological as well as clinical research, and it is still
offering vital information to clinicians, economists and others. They are
still tracking those babies!  I don't know that they used the opportunity
to get good info about bf  and its lasting effect : (

Spence was one of the first docs *ever* to worry about bf and not blame
women for its lack of success...he drew conclusions about hospital
practice, instead of castigating women for fecklessness or greed or
whatever.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK

             ***********************************************
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