I have been thinkign about the issue today. i woudl like to discuss a few things: > My recent research specifically focuses on a number of > questions related to lacation: 1) the life history of the breast > from embryonic development through pregnancy, breastfeeding, weaning, > and menopause; 2) the presence of chemical contaminants in breast > tissue and breast milk and their possible relevance to a) breast > cancer in the mother and b) developmental problems in the nurslings; > 3) how the presence of breast milk contaminants changes through the > period of lactation; 4) how the functioning of various constiuents > of breast milk (e.g. immunoglobulins) may be compromised by the > presence of chemical contaminants (e.g. immunosuppressive chemicals, > such as PCBS and dioxins); and 5) how the presence of certain > contaminants might interfere with milk production (possibly through > endocrine disruption, e.g. prolactin and oxytocin pathways). Regarding the last point: I know there has been a research that showed that women who had higher dioxin levels, weaned significantly earlier than women with less dioxins in their breastmilk. The research had controlled for SE factors. The researcher concluded that the dioxins might cuase problesm with the milk production. The research is: "DDE and Shortened Duration of Lactation in a Northern Mexican Town. Beth.C. Gladen and Walter J.Rogan. Am J of Public Health, Vol.85, No.4, 1995, p.504-8. Dr. Rogan's main research focus has been the effect of pollutant chemicals on the growth and development of children. He has been involved with three major studies. The first is a cohort study of North Carolina children exposed to background levels of PCBs and DDT. These children were born between 1978 and 1982, and were followed through puberty. Although the primary hypothesis of this study was that PCBs and DDT (as DDE) in breast milk might produce toxicity in nurslings, Rogan and his co-investigator, Beth Gladen (Statistics Branch, NIEHS), showed that transplacental but not lactational exposure to PCBs produced small but persistent delays in motor development detectable from birth to age 2 years. They also showed that DDE at higher levels was associated with markedly earlier weaning, replicated that finding in Mexico, and speculated that this might be because DDE is a weak estrogen. " I think this conclusion has been done way too easy and quickly. We know that most insufficient mulk supply is perceived. Women wean when they think they haven't enough milk. In most cases this is not true. In cases there is indeed an insufficient milk supply, only the minority of it is physiological. Most cases could be resolved with support and good help with bf management. I think in this case this could be true either. One could however wonder why women with contaminated more perceive their milk supply to be low . Maybe their babies are different? I indeed think this is the case. Contaminant exposure in utero has been associated with irritability in babies, behavioural problems at a later age, attention problems at a later age, and it is also associated with lower motor and neurological scores on test in small babies. In other words, these babies may cry more, causing the perception of low milk supply in the mothers. And maybe more of these babies have dysfunctional sucking movements due to their delay in neurological and motoric development, causing very early wenaing... I think for now the research shows more support for this theory that the theory of the hormone-disruption of the toxins causiong real insufficient milk supply. In the latter case the difference would be not so high, would it be hidden among the many cases of perceived insufficient milk supply , AND it would come up much earlier, namely directly after birth. We should not forget the following: there are lots of data on contaminated breastmilk, because researching breastmilk is the easiest way to measure the general exposure of the whole popualtion. One don't need to take blood samples, just a cup of breastmilk. One cannot imagine a stronger action message than an image of a baby at the breast, accompagnied with alarming words "'toxic!" BUT, it's the in uterine exposure that is much more damaging. The Dutch reasearchers even found that breastfeeding did counteract the negative effects of the in uterine exposure. The action groups like Greenpeace do use these images, resulting in women wean their baby, or not even start breastfeeding. We had such a campaign about POP's lately from Greenpeace, shortly before the conference in Scandinavia. The public conclusion was it is better to stop breastfeeding. Greeanpeace knows better but willingly doesn't speak up when someone concludes this from their message. I held Greenpeace responsible for the weaning of a lot of babies and so for their less change of a healthy life. > --the good news: the Swedish breast milk monitoring program, which > is the gold standard and has been operating for 30 years, shows > significant drops in dioxin and ddt levels since the 1980s. These > drops reflect stricter European laws in the use and manufacture of > these chemicals, incinerator closings, etc. That is to say, > political action does work to clean up breast milk. Indeed, political action helps, but these actions should not focus in breastfeeding, but on uterine exposure. The action that are performed now are resulting in weaning, and that's not good!!! off my soapbox. Annelies *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html