Mr. Knox writes: >"From coverage in the UK press and from the link there is no mention of > >how she fed her babies - I assume that in the US the coverage has >delved >into all facets of the case. Are you claiming that exclusive BF >will >prevent PND [which may progress to psychosis]? I know women for >whom the 2 >have coincided and who have pondered whether they would have >fallen prey >to PND if they had NOT been BF...." The papers in the US have not said how she fed her children, but in order to have 5 children in 7 years, you pretty much have to not be breastfeeding them, or not breastfeed them exclusively or for very long. With 'ecological breastfeeding' of very frequent feeds, including at night, and exclusive breastfeeding for the first 4-6 months and continued frequent breastfeeding after that for several years, most women (not ALL) experience at least 6 months and up to 3 years of lactational amenorrhea, and typical birth spacing (in the absence of any other birth control) of 3-4 years. Oxytocin is a powerful mood elevator, and oxytocin is present in breastfeeding mothers at much higher levels than in bottle-feeding mothers. Thus, there is both an indirect and a direct way in which breastfeeding might have made a difference in this case -- indirect by reducing the number of children under the age of 7 years that she had to cope with, and direct by increasing the oxytocin in her bloodstream. Will exclusive breastfeeding prevent all cases of post-partum depression and/or psychosis? No, of course not. And there are no doubt many other factors involved in this case, some of which we may never know. I had a graduate student complete her Master's research thesis on the mood-elevating effects of oxytocin. Post-partum depression is both more common and more severe among bottle-feeding women. Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Anthropology and Nutrition Texas A&M University _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com *********************************************** 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