Thanks to Melissa Vickers for extracting some telling phrases from the
obesity study being discussed in this thread. 

*"Breastfed infants gain weight more slowly during the first year of life
than formula-fed infants, probably due to the natural limitations of
available energy supply."

If there are any "natural limitations of available energy supply" for the
typical exclusively breastfed baby of a well-nourished mother with no
induced milk production challenges (breast surgery, hormonal birth control,
scheduled feeds, etc.), they are limitations that the baby has made. People
don't understand that babies have the ability to regulate their own energy
intake by adjusting their pattern of feeds. But what is the Number One
worry/fear of breastfeeding women everywhere? "Not Enough Milk!" 

Maybe it is this fear that perpetuates the myth--that women don't make
enough milk. Or maybe it is the myth that perpetuates the fear. 

In either case, I think one task for us in--what does Jim Akre call it? the
Global Breastfeeding Collective?--is to figure out ways to help people
understand that mother's milk does NOT have to be scarce. Human milk could
be an ABUNDANT natural resource...and the way to make this happen is to
support breastfeeding mothers at home, in the family, the neighborhood, the
community, the workplace, in public, and anywhere else they happen to be.

Chris Mulford, RN, IBCLC
LLL Leader Reserve
Working for WIC in South Jersey (Eastern USA)
Chair, Workplace Bf Support Committee, USBC
Co-coordinator, Women & Work Task Force, WABA
 
 

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