Dawn,

I don't know about studies of mothers and lifestyle choices, but I know what
I told a group of pregnant teens with a history of drug use we were doing
outreach with.

I told them there would be two drugs available to them when their baby is
born:  prolactin and oxytocin.  Prolactin is the "earth mother" hormone,
making you feel like everything's cool and you can handle anything and you
are so serene.  Oxytocin is the "mother bear" hormone, making you feel like
you'll defend and put up with your baby through thick and thin.

One of the girls asked me deadpan, "Where do we get those drugs"?

"Just hold and nurse your baby," I replied.  But I don't think I made the
point half as well as her classmate whose baby was already born.  That girl
must have nursed her newborn three times in the hour we spent there, just
sitting there all laid-back and clearly enjoying her child.

Recent research on addiction shows that the biochemistry of everything from
alcohol to cocaine to gambling to overeating ties into an important set of
neural receptors:
http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=0001E632-978A-1019-978A8341
4B7F0101

It makes sense to me that maternal devotion may get the women you describe
to choose healthy habits, but those hormones are what keeps them going by
giving them a healthy, natural, psychosocially rewarding way to flood those
receptors with what they crave!

Ruth Piatak, LLLL
Plano, TX
____________________________________________________________________________
Date:    Fri, 20 Aug 2004 11:53:44 -0400
From:    Dawn Kersula <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Breastfeeding moms and healthy lifestyle choices

I'm in the process of writing a letter of support for a grant
application. We're working on a grant to fight obesity in a little
village here in southern Vermont. I wanted to say that breastfeeding
moms make healthy lifestyle choices for their kids, and so the whole
family will be healthier (and hopefully less obese!) when moms
breastfeed.

Now, I have seen mothers who continued to abstain from smoking, cocaine
and heroin addicts who stay clean so they can breastfeed, and alcoholics
who feel breastfeeding has helped them to continue in recovery.

But I cannot find any studies! Any ideas? (I have looked!)

Dawn Kersula
Brattleboro Vermont

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