Heather's, Helen W's, Anne's, and others' posts reflect the relentless
effort to find any and all reasons women shouldn't breastfeed and to hide
all of the reasons they should. The prevailing belief is that women will
breastfeed if they *must* but certainly shouldn't do so if there is any
"researched" reason to abstain.

I find the exercise issue humorous (if people didn't *believe* it) because
it is only within our sedentary lifestyles that a mother's exerting herself
would be seen as possibly causing harm to her milk supply. I "suspect" that
women have, for centuries, been engaging in strenuous, tiring labor
(sweating even!) without "studies" showing that such work is harmful to
their milk supplies or their babies.

In the US, breastfeeding is seen as something so unusual  that any *normal*
human activity must be examined before assuring a woman that the activity
is "allowed." I get the strangest questions from mothers, who have been
alarmed by someone that they are putting their babies at risk for something
that women have always done.

It is appalling that even people in health care are *eager* to prove that
breastfeeding is not, in fact, the overall healthful way for mothers to
nourish their infants.  Any small gains that are made are quickly countered
by other "studies" that are then eagerly embraced by the HCPs and their
journals--followed, of course, by front page stories in the press.

One reason that I don't like to rely on research to prove some aspect of
breastfeeding is that I know that next week there will be another study to
"prove" the first wrong.

So we must keep on keeping on.

Patricia Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
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