Hi Elaine, I live in the same community where Kathleen Tyson lives, and watched the whole drama unfold. To clarify, the Tysons never had their son removed from them. Although they lost legal custody, I think for the 1st 12 months of his life, they always had physical custody. Meaning that although Felix was a legal ward of the state, he lived with his parents, and was always cared for by them. I think it wd be entirely possible for a mom with HIV to breastfeed "in the closet", regardless of how we as health workers, or they as parents, interpret the available research. Or how we counsel or advise them. The Tysons were sanctioned right away by the legal system because they were very open about their intention to breastfeed, and in fact Felix was breastfed for his first 10 hours of life in the hospital. The intensity of the social and legal response to their decision was in my opinion due to the fact that they had been "adopted" by a fringe group who do not believe that HIV causes AIDS. This group of activists, in my opinion, wanted a human interest story that would get media attention for their viewpoint, and they got it. I still wonder how the custody hearing would have gone had the Tysons chosen to argue their case from an "informed consent" or civil rights standpoint rather than from the premise that HIV does not cause AIDS. Martha Johnson RN IBCLC Eugene Oregon -----Original Message----- From: Elaine M Mazgelis [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2002 6:22 PM Subject: Re: HIV and BF question With all this discussion re HIV and bf, I am really curious about something - What ARE the things that might happen to a mom in the United States who has HIV and has access to formula (especially if she's on WIC) and yet she chooses to bf anyway? I have never had this question come up, but I am curious: is it a GIVEN that DSS would be after her (and how would they find out - are medical records still confidential re HIV?) or would that depend on what state you live in (liberal vs. conservative)? I am REALLY curious about these things; I know there have been cases where mothers with HIV had their children taken away but does this ALWAYS happen? Elaine Mazgelis, RD, IBCLC WIC BF Coordinator Cambridge-Somerville WIC Program (in Massachusetts, of course) ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/. *********************************************** 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