I thought this was a lovely letter on teh BMJ rapid responses today
http://bmj.com/cgi/eletters/326/7379/13
What a lovely letter below to be found on the BMJ rapid responses today, in
response to the article about analgesic effects of breastfeeding.
Magda
I'm a Newborn 23 January 2003
Sergio Conti Nibali,
family pediatrician
Messina (ITALY) 98123
I cannot speak, but I've always used my body movements, my facial
expressions, my beckoning and my cries to make me understand. I'd like to
say that for the past few years (about ten), I've been bothered more and
more by all those people who continuously try to separate me from my mother
as soon as I am born. They do not allow me to stay with her more than a few
hours during the day. They do not allow me to suckle that delicious creamy
fluid that they call colostrum. And if they do allow me, it's only when they
decide. They advise my mother on when and how much I should eat. Often they
do not allow me to drink my mother's milk, but rather a liquid that I dare
to swallow only because I'm starving. I know that there are some people out
there who try to protect me (1,2), but let me tell you that they are few,
too few!
The worst came when many people round the world started to think that they
had to find proof that my desire to stay close to my mother and to suckle
her milk as I wished, just as any puppy would do, was truly legitimate, in
other words "effective". They started to carry out the best possible
research, what they call RCT, according to "evidence based medicine". It is
impossible for me to list all the RCTs they imposed upon me, because the
Editor of the BMJ wouldn't let me add more than five references. But if you
want, you can type "Breast Feeding" [MESH] in something called PubMed, you
can limit the publication date from 1993 to 2003 and age to newborn, and
search only the RCTs you will count 187 papers!
I'd like to ask you to please stop wasting your time trying to demonstrate
that doing what mother nature does is better than doing something else.
Acknowledgement: I'd like to give many thanks to Sergio Conti Nibali, family
paediatrician, who allowed me to speak out.
1. Editorial. A warm chain for breastfeeding. The Lancet 1994;344:1239-41
2. American Academy of Pediatrics Work Group on Breastfeeding. Breastfeeding
and the use of human milk. Pediatrics 1997;100(6):1035-1039
Competing interests: None declared
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