Julia Menella is a wonderful researcher whose interesting studies on smell
and tastes of substances in breastmilk (garlic, alcohol, etc) are useful and
insightful.  Why is it surprising to anyone that cigarettes make milk smell?
Smoke makes everything stink.  I can smell a smoker from 5 feet.

 If we willing accept the notion that we think violent births can influence
a person's fate in the direction of a violent death, or if we agree with
Scandanavian researchers who put forth the idea a while back that exposure
to narcotics during birth might predispose to seeking narcotic highs later
in life, why do we reject that a substance an infant is chronically exposed
to during lactation might affect this baby's behavior later?  It makes
perfect sense to me.  What makes no sense is the advice not to breastfeed.
The better advice is:  Don't smoke.  However, remember we deal with
addictive behavior when we begin to discuss drugs and alcohol.  Addicts tend
to reject good advice even when they agree with it intellectually.  And
people around addicts try to control their behavior all kinds of ways --
some of them stupid, pointless and ill-advised.  Maybe the doctors saying
they can no longer advise smoking mothers to bfg. are trying to shame or
control mothers with guilt hoping this will make them stop.  They  may see
this info as a weapon of control.  It won't work to stop additions.  It may
make some mothers not chose bfg. but then smokers don't typically chose to
bfeed anyway.  Rather than shoot the messenger, we need to look at the
deeper issues.


Barbara Wilson-Clay, BSEd, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates, Austin, Texas
http://www.jump.net/~bwc/lactnews.html