Hi Katherine:
I really enjoyed your chapter, tonight I am teaching a class at university
it includes information on the hazards of ABM I intend to highlight your
section on warnings on the can, along with examples of the different types
of advertising done by formula companies. Have you seen the similac fridge
magnet it has a cow on it with a red circle and slash through it the first
impression is a formula that does not contain cows milk!
I would appreciate the references on breast cancer particularly the
protection conferred on female infants. Have your read any of the work by
Michael Kramer? He is a biostatistition, epidemiologist and pediatrition at
McGill, Montreal. He has written extensively on the problems with
breastfeeding research. One of the main design problems is that they do not
separate out exclusive breastfeeding mothers, partial etc.
One of the assignments my students do is the impact of breastfeeding on
maternal health. My students often come up with some very current research
I have not yet seen these articles but I will pass them along. I do not
have the authors but in Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obs. & Gyn.
What the breast does for the baby and what the baby does for the breast,
June 1994.
Epidemiology, Exposure oto breasmilk in infancy and the risk of breast
cancer , May 1994. Sorry about lack of authors I will get copies from my
student.
Susan Moxley IBCLC
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>>I agree that it is very frustrating never to hear anything about the
>published studies showing both that breastfeeding protects a mother against
>breast cancer and that having been breastfed protects children against
>cancer in general and breast cancer (in daughters) specifically. If anyone
>needs those references, I can provide them easily. There is a chapter on bf
>and cancer in my new book (sorry I always seem to be hyping my book) by Marc
>Micozzi of the National Museum of Medicine. He started out very skeptical
>about the issue and became a "convert" as he did his research and writing of
>the chapter. He has an MD as well as a Ph.D. in Anthropology, so maybe his
>credentials will lend credibility to his chapter as far as doctors are
>concerned. I gave my local ob/gyn a copy of the recent studies on bf and
>cancer and his response was "Well, the medical community doesn't accept
>these data." He wouldn't or couldn't explain what the heck that meant!
> I have a talk I give to classes and community groups on bf and
>breast cancer. Maybe each of you who are lactation consultants can schedule
>public talks during breast cancer awareness month (October I think) and try
>to get the word out. One of my overheads shows a time-line of decades from
>1900 to 2000, and suggests that the rising breast cancer incidence rates can
>be traced to the fact that there were three sloppily overlapping cohorts of
>women: (1) those like my mother, born in the early decades of the century,
>who were both breastfed as children and breastfed their own children born in
>the 1930s and 1940s [actually my mother was born in 1920 and breastfed her
>children born in 1948 and 1955 (me) but bottlefed the middle one born in
>1953 (which explains a LOT, we also joke). After bottle-feeding one in
>1953, she switched back to breastfeeding with me in 1955 even though it
>wasn't the cool thing to do at the time.], (2) those born in the 1920s,
>1930s, and 1940s, who were breastfed as children but did NOT breasfeed their
>own children born in the 1950s and 1960s (thereby losing the second source
>of protection), and (3) those born in the 1950s and 1960s who both were NOT
>breastfed and did NOT breastfeed their own children (thereby losing both the
>first and second sources of protection). The relationship can't be expected
>to be exact, because all along their were some women who breastfed even when
>it wasn't cool, and because women breastfeed for different lengths of time
>and for different numbers of children. Thus, I'm sure there is no way to
>prove that the recent rapid rise in breast cancer is due to the aging of the
>cohort that was neither breastfed nor did breastfeed their own children, but
>it is an interesting thought, and gets people talking.
> I'd love to hear what the rest of you think. When I showed my
>overhead explaining this to the above-mentioned ob/gyn he said "Hmmmmm.
>Interesting."
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>-------
>Katherine A. Dettwyler email:
>[log in to unmask]
>Anthropology Department phone: (409) 845-5256
>Texas A&M University fax: (409) 845-4070
>College Station, TX 77843-4352
>
>
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