David Satcher does not deserve to be skewered about his stance on
breastfeeding, of all things. As U.S. Surgeon General under Clinton, he
was responsible for the widely distributed HHS Blueprint for Action on
Breastfeeding. He called breastfeeding "one of the most important
contributors to infant health" and termed the low breastfeeding rates in
the U.S. "a public health challenge" and called for "national,
culturally appropriate strategies to promote breastfeeding." This latter
demand instigated the Ad Council's breastfeeding campaign that Bush's
appointee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, Tommy
Thompson, subsequently aborted.

 

According to the article Vicki Ryan sent to the list, the 20 top
"preventive medicine" recommendations were gleaned from 8,000
"preventive-medicine studies." That type of research immediately
excludes breastfeeding from consideration. Yes, of course that's crazy
and irresponsible and ignorant, but the medical community does not think
of breastfeeding as falling under the rubric "preventive medicine" so my
guess is that the word "breastfeeding" did not appear in a single one of
those 8,000 studies. There's always hope though-forty years ago tobacco
avoidance did not fall under that rubric either.

 

Jackie Wolf


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