Martha, you wrote:
"But I would love to see more lactation-minded individuals doing research
that would be SUPPORTIVE, rather than undermining of breastfeeding. Perhaps ILCA
can set up more research grants, start a scholarship fund for LCs (like me!)
who want to learn research skills. In addition, we ALL need to exert our
collective political passion toward influencing research-funding bodies, like the
NIH, to fund more breastfeeding-related studies. The vast majority of money
NIH grants for infant feeding research goes to formula-related studies every
year. This can and should be changed!"
While I would love to see an end to research used to further the economic
interests of the infant formula, drug and dairy industries over the promotion of
breastfeeding, I believe that no organization or group of people should be
working to influence research or its funding. Science is about finding the
"truth" wherever that may lead and sometimes it may not be what we want to hear.
Scientists have to have the freedom from any influence, including the
breastfeeding community, otherwise what we get for science is "untruth." While the
breastfeeding community may want to level the playing field by funding particular
people or projects, the result maybe a science not believed by anyone. We
are certainly getting to that point where some people are questioning if
evidence based science exists in the USA. But let's not be part of the problem and
join the game of influence and biased science.
As for influencing the NIH, we don't have enough money to do that. If you
want to get a clear picture of the monies needed to influence the NIH, I would
encourage you to read an article by David Willman in the LA Times called "The
National Institutes of Health: Public Servant or Private Marketer?" published
December 22, 2004. The NIH is governed by the Department of Health and Social
Services which is headed by the Secretary of Health, a political appointment.
The Department of Health owns patents on various "inventions" including one
on recombinant human lactoferrin and on various test kits for hiv and various
cancers (breast, prostate, etc). Scientists of the NIH are assumed to be
neutral government experts. The LA Times disclosed that many of these scientists
are being paid by drug companies for consultations and have stock options in
those drugs. Neutral science? Nope. What we have in the USA is corporations
funding our government researchers. These researchers answer to people who are
politically appointed through corporate influence/funding. The corporate
nature of our government is an element of fascism not democratic in nature. The
amount of influence the breastfeeding community will have on these people is
virtually nil. Simply put we don't have enough money to dangle in front of
them. Although we do have alot of power because human milk is a gold mine of vast
potential that is being mined by the pharmaceutical industry. Stop the
pharmaceutical industry from obtaining access to human milk and you might see some
real concessions made to the breastfeeding community. I don't think that will
happen (after reading the various posts on the issue of my proposal of a
human milk bank boycott). Instead the breastfeeding community believes they can
work within the system. This corporate system has enormous sums of money,
power, and control of the media. The system will use the breastfeeding community
to get what it wants which is easy access to human milk and essentially
minimize breastfeeding promotion.
Valerie W. McClain, breastfeeding advocate
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