At one time I thought this was just semantics. Wasn't risks of AF just the
flip side of advantages of breasfeeding? Then I did some more reading (ie
Diane's wonderful article and others, such as the book Breastfeeding
Matters) and got a different perspective.

But I became convinced when I heard a mother whose baby was fed formula
discussing the issue with a pregnant woman who was considering
breastfeeding. The pregnant woman said she'd heard research had found many
benefits to breastfeeding. The mother said: "It really doesn't make much
difference. Look, if the normal rate of ear infections is four per year, and
by breastfeeding you might reduce that to two per year, is it really worth
the inconvenience and effort of breastfeeding? Don't confuse 'optimal' with
being worth the effort. Think about your house. It's clean, right? As clean
as everybody else's. Now, if you worked for an extra four hours a day on
housecleaning, you might have it "optimally" clean. But would it be worth
it? Breastfeeding is the same. Sure, your baby might get a few fewer colds
than normal, but it will take a lot of effort for results that are barely
noticeable."

Hearing this conversation made a huge impact on me. It was clear that this
mother - and I assume many others - saw formula feeding as normal and
breastfeeding as both difficult and resulting in a few fringe benefits. I
think that when we talk about the "advantages of breastfeeding" we are,
unwittingly, reinforcing this idea.

Breastfeeding is normal. Feeding babies any other way introduces risks.
That's the reality, and we need to be communicating that to everyone we talk
to.

(And yes, I did talk to the pregnant woman privately and clarified a few
points. And she did breastfeed.)

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario

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