Hi Phyllis

I am guessing that the key to the conundrum you pose (on the various 
opinions or studies about infant mortality that appear not to support 
exclusive breastfeeding as the key to infant health) is that there are many 
reasons why infants die.  Pre-conception and pregnancy nutrition of the 
mother, violence or stress in the home, quality of care during pregnancy and 
labour, cleanliness with instruments during and after delivery, substance 
abuse, congenital issues, access to postnatal care for mother and baby... 
So babies can die within the first month of life for many reasons other than 
nutrition, and those areas are where primary health changes can make a 
difference.

There is no way to reduce perinatal deaths to zero, though we are obviously 
doing better these days.  Gosh, I think read this week that even USA has 
come up from 45th in the world to 41st in infant mortality rates listings 
(gentle sly dig, and totally glass-house-ish since my country is one of the 
few where infant mortality rates have worsened since the Millennium Goals 
were set).

I don't think the authors of the studies meant to imply that bf has little 
value, though it almost appears that way as you outline it.  I'm sorry, my 
comment might differ if I was able to access my copy of Riordan and 
Wambach's book, so I'm interested to hear other comments.

Best wishes
Jacquie Nutt IBCLC

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

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome