"It dawned on me, as I was constructing a breastfeeding class for health
 care
professionals that the way most folks write about the good things is to  say
they are low risk. "Breastfeeding lowers a woman's risk of breast cancer."
What is really meant is that "breastfeeding protects a woman from breast
cancer." The word "protects" has been passed through the filter of fear, and
 become
"reduces risk."


Has anyone else noticed this shift in words?"

"Protects" becomes "eliminates" in some people's ears, perhaps? Which would
be inaccurate. I'm casting my mind back to my own early mothering days and
the moms who have come to me saying, "But I thought that breastfeeding
protected against ear infections -- why did my child get sick?"

Birth control is sometimes referred to as "protection" -- ie "You're
pregnant again? Don't you use protection?" Or vaccines, which "protect"
against various diseases. All of these things have a failure rate, but in
too many minds "protect/protection" means "eliminates risk." So "reduces
risk" becomes more accurate?

Just theorizing. Of course not breastfeeding "increases risk" would be more
what we'd like to hear, hmmm?

I'm interested in hearing more about "the filter of fear" -- I don't
understand what you're trying to say, but it sounds like it's probably
interesting. (I blame it on the #$*^@ fireworks that kept me up way too
late!)

Freyja May, LLLL, CO, USA

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