Dear Lisa, I researched the net and found an email address
for Liz Braun of the Toronto Sun.
Here is her blanket permission to copy.
Judy Ritchie
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Gland tidings of great joy
Date: 29 Mar 2001 09:28:29 -0500
From: Liz Braun <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Liz Braun <[log in to unmask]>
To: Judy Ritchie <[log in to unmask]>
Dear Ms. Ritchie,
I did indeed write this article. Your kind note has made me
blush, and I hasten to add you may use it, share it, wrap
fish in it, whatever, with my heartfelt permission. If it
helps any woman make the right choice to breastfeed, that
would be terrific. All the best to you, and many thanks for
writing.
Regards,
Liz Braun
On Wednesday, March 28, 2001, Judy Ritchie <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Did you actually write this? because I loved it and hope you did.
It was on the Internet and I would like permission to share it
with friends who breastfeed.
Judy Ritchie Olympia WA
By LIZ BRAUN -- Toronto Sun
Let's not talk about Rene Heikamp, starving
babies, social agencies, legal battles, futile
inquests or any of the rest of it. Instead, today's
topic is breastfeeding, a slight but important change
from the usual handling of breasts in these pages.
About two months ago in The Sun, reporter
Laura Bobak wrote an informative article about the
many benefits of breastfeeding. Bobak pointed out,
with grace and kindness, that certain at-risk babies
might have had a better chance had they been breastfed.
Having been absent on the day that grace and kindness
were handed out, we would come right up and tell you
that anyone who makes a choice not to breastfeed is
just not paying attention. (Please note: We said
'choice'. Some women are not able to breastfeed.
We know that. This is not about you, okay?)
There is so much tip-toeing around the subject of
breastfeeding that it's easy to see how people can
be confused. In the name of not hurting anybody's
feelings, or maybe in the name of supporting
perfect baby bonding or some other touchy-feely
subject, breast and bottle are often presented as a
six-of-one, half-a-dozen-of-the-other proposition,
with breast milk gently suggested as having some sort
of vague advantage.
Even La Leche League goes around politely
whispering, "Breast is best," and they, of anyone,
know better -- breast milk kicks the stuffing out of
the competition. There is no contest. Breast milk
rocks! The only worthwhile thing that comes in a
bottle is 30-year-old scotch.
From now on, the gloves are off. No more Mrs.
Nice Breast.
You want all the scientific evidence boiled
down into easy terms? Breastfed babies are healthier
and smarter. Their immune systems work like rockets
and they all speak Greek and Latin fluently by
the age of three; 98% of university professors and
world leaders, not counting Bill Clinton, were
breastfed as babies. Okay, I'll stop.
One of the concerns some mothers have is finding a
place to feed baby whilst out in public. We have
all read the proper way to drape a little blanket
over both baby and breast, in order to feed in a
modest fashion and not offend anybody.
Yeah, sure. Well, let's make a deal. The same
day Pamela Anderson and her pneumatic ilk agree to
throw a little blankie over their breasts in public,
nursing mothers will agree to do the same.
Until then, let it be resolved that women are
free to ignore those righteous persons who want them
to know that breastfeeding should be done in private
only.
(Such people, by the way, inclined to pick on the
vulnerable as they are, may be gently rebuffed in
these situations with a simple, "Bite me," although
the all-purpose "F --- off," is useful repartee
in a pinch.)
You may have noticed some very bad reports about cow's
milk in the newspapers lately. There seems to be a
connection between milk and a whole pack of
childhood diseases, including ear infections, asthma,
SIDS and juvenile diabetes.
Cow's milk is suspected of playing a part in the
transmission of the bacteria that cause Crohn's
disease.
If any of your children has ever had an ear
infection, you probably remember the pediatrician
saying "No more dairy," or "No milk for a while."
There you go.
(You really don't have to be a tree-hugger in
Birkenstocks to get off the milk wagon. Plenty of us
nature-hating carnivores eschew milk.)
Meanwhile, the best argument of all for
breastfeeding is the one you will get from the lazy
people, like ourselves -- there is nothing to boil,
sterilize, cool down or generally muck about with
when somebody hungry is crying for you.
You don't have to stumble around the house looking
for apparatus. All a breastfeeding mother has to do
is find her own breasts, a job even Lara Flynn
Boyle could handle.
And unlike bottles, you can't drop your breasts on
the floor by accident in your new-mother,
sleep-deprived state.
You can never misplace the nipples, either.
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