I've been following this thread with a great deal of interest.  What
appears to be missing in the discussion is the comparative research.  Our
western cultures feel ethically obligated to continue to add fortifiers to
human milk because to not do so may put them at risk of providing a
'lesser' standard of care in the name of research, which is
unacceptable.  However the number of prems and micro prems who ever get the
chance to receive fortification is a very small percentage of the ones ever
born - worldwide.
Remember when the original research was done on Kangaroo Mother Care and
they had to stop it because the infants receiving the high technological
care fared worse than the infants in the very poor hospital which could
afford no more than KMC?
I'd like to see a comparison of infants who, after surviving 24 hours,
receive full, proper KMC with no fortification to their mother's milk
(because that's their standard care) and those in our Western hospitals who
get everything that science can throw at them (because that's their
standard care).
Perhaps researchers don't want to do that for fear of what the results may
be - either causing us to feel very guilty because we don't assist poorer
countries to give their infants the same better care, or maybe to see a lot
of our 'reason for being' destroyed.
I guess there has been some research along these lines, but I would be
surprised if the control group was a group of babies receiving the full,
proper KMC - which is very different to receiving every other technology,
except fortification of the milk.
Some of our African IBCLCs have commented on this in the past and what they
have said is very interesting.  You may like to search the archives to read it.
Denise

*************************************************
Denise Fisher MMP, BN, IBCLC
BreastEd Online Lactation Studies
http://www.health-e-learning.com

*************************************************

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html