I'm feeling a little cranky after the Atlantic article and I'm pretty sure I'm repeating myself. The article follows standard guidelines for discrediting breastfeeding as follows: 1) Discredit the evidence --- usually only taking on those conditions for which it is difficult to prove a relationship to anything (e.g obesity and IQ --- they never take on diarrhea or respiratory infections) 2) Discredit the researchers --- note the indirect comments about the American Academy of Pediatrics ---- that are designed to lead one to conclude that these are breastfeeding fanatics 3) Claim that women will be liberated by formula feeding (yes, I am naming Voldemort) --- hence appealing to "feminists" (the debate is always couched in the Martyr versus Liberated or the Madonna versus Lazy terms) My problem with the argument that formula is a feminist issue is that women used to work in close proximity to their infants. Just like sleeping in close proximity to your infant, working in close proximity enables women to work and breastfeed with less disruption. Industrialization made this just about impossible for women to breastfeed their infants while working and the infant death rates in Chicago (I'd have to get the original citations) were in the 300 per 1000 during this period from the formula available at the time. Wetnursing among family and kin members was common and the wealthy used wetnurses. Formula has been given sufficient subsidies to demolish wetnursing as a viable employment opportunity and hence we now have an inferior product. If we can screen for egg donors, sperm donors and surrogate mothers, you cannot convince me that the medical community cannot give guidelines for safer wetnursing and milk sharing. The baby swapping that I know went on among cowives in Northeast Zaire (now Congo again) was the maternal relief system. These women shared care giving and income generating activities. In that area of the world women really were the economic engine - -- most men only worked at chopping down large trees and hunting except for a few lucky men who worked for the railroad company, the five teachers and the two doctors. Google the author of the article --- it should be enlightening as to her lack of credentials in science. Best, Susan *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome