Naomi,
I wonder where this idea of purity of breastmilk came from?  Is this a
left-over religious concept that breastfeeding is the sisterhood of the
saints and therefore mother's milk is pure? I don't mean this in a sarcastic
or irreverant tone but rather as a question of why we believe what we do.  I
frankly have never thought of it as a pure substance.  How could it be?  We
are part of our environment and that environment is teeming with
pathogens--good and bad, chemicals--good and bad.

We live in a contaminated environment (some worse than others), so why would
we expect the mammary gland to be a barrier to that contamination.   Our
bodies reflect the earth and its contamination.  Has that stopped many of us
from having babies?  Nope.  Does the fact that sex carries a risk of disease
stop of us from having sex?  Nope.  We modify our behavior to make it safer
but we don't stop that behavior. Why should the fact that breastmilk has
toxins in it stop us from breastfeeding?

Should we be afraid that mother's milk is not pure?  I don't think so. How
else can our beautiful bioreactors manufacture antibodies to
diseases/pathogens without having the disease/pathogen there.  Isn't that the
purpose of our mammary glands?  That we now have man-made chemicals there is
worrisome and upsetting but what is the alternative?  An artificial substance
that is basicly free of life?  An artificial substance that cannot
manufacture antibodies to the pathogens in the mother's environment.  An
artificial substance that is static, genetically engineered.

Let's save purity for the saints and help our mothers understand that
breastfeeding is the garden of life for our babies and canned infant formula
is the manufactured version of the garden--expensive, dated, without life and
reality. Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC

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