Jean's comments lead me to consider China. What are their BFing initiation and continuation rates? Different among rural and urbal women? What are their breast cancer rates and how have they changed since WWII (since that is the point of comparison with the US). When did abortion become prevalent - rumored to be mandatory beyond the first baby - in China? Does this all tie together?
Phyllis


---- Kermaline Cotterman <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 
  I recently attended a conference on Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing
> which included a breast surgeon and a breast cancer researcher among the
> speakers. The point was made that early in a healthy pregnancy, the breast
> is bombarded with a huge dose of hormones as part of the normal cycle of
> physiological preparation designed to take place in the breast during
> pregancy.
> 
> 
> When medical-surgical abortion ends a pregnancy, the breast's stimulation is
> also aborted in mid-pattern causing subsequent early involution of the
> partially formed breast tissue. This is not the same situation as in a
> spontaneous abortiion (miscarriage) as the hormonal levels usually seem to
> differ because the pregnancy is less likely to have been normal in all
> aspects.
> 
> 
> The conclusion was that therefore the number of medical-surgical abortions
> in a woman's reproductive history is a factor in increased risk for
> future breast cancer.
> 
> 
> Abortion became legal in the U.S in 1973. Millions of abortions have taken
> place since that time, meaning that millions of hormonal breast stimulation
> patterns have also been aborted in the last 30+ years.
> 
  
--
Phyllis Adamson, IBCLC, RLC
Glendale, AZ.
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