----- Original Message -----
From: "Nikki Lee" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 12:44 AM
Subject: [LACTNET] DNA changes quicker than previously thought......how does
this relate to breastfeeding?
**Hi Nikki,
> Dear Friends:
>
> In this week's Newsweek Magazine, Sharon Begley has a fascinating article
> entitled "The Sins of the Fathers, Take 2".
> http://www.newsweek.com/id/180103
>
> I'll quote a paragraph: " Some water fleas sport a spiny helmet that
> deters
> predators, others, with identical DNA sequences, have bare heads. What
> differs between the two is not their genes, but their mother's
> experiences.
> If mom had a run-in with predators, her offspring have helmets.......if
> mom
> lived her life unthreatened, her offspring have no helmets. .......Somehow
> the experience of the mothers, not only her DNA sequence, has been
> transmitted to her offspring."
>
> The article goes on to cite other examples, and discuss a paradigm shift
> in
> how we think about inheritance of traits.
>
> Now, being a LC, I thought of breastfeeding. Could this notion of
> experience
> be transmitted in humans? If a mother didn't breastfeed, but went through
> the physiologically disrupting experience of premature involution, could
> that experience be transmitted to some later offspring? Could this concept
> be one more reason (besides a lack of support, respect and value for
> breastfeeding and/or the impact of generations of pollution) on the
> breastfeeding problems we all see too often?
**Hmmm... interesting question... Then again... this story is about how
threatening circumstances in the mother's life cause the offspring to be
more protected against what she had to deal with. What you describe
concerning less bf capacity, is a development in the other direction,
right...? This kind of research is really fascinating and it goes to show us
how much we still don't know.
As for the nature-nurture discussion... that's long due. It's overly clear
that very much of development is nurture. It's the difference between
genotypes (genetic material) and phenotypes (the way the genetic material
evolves given specific circumstances. This is very well described in Sarah
Blaffer Hrdy's book 'Mother Nature'. She even described how a certain kind
of butterfly produces eggs that turn out as branch-like caterpillars in
early spring and as leaves-like caterpillars in summer!! This way, they are
able to hide in the trees without being eaten straight away. My...
incredible!
I just cannot forget what Richard Bowlby (son of) said in Vienna, while
looking at us very seriously and his index finger pointing upwards: "You are
dealing with a ne human life. Don't mess with it!"
Seems like very good advice to me... ;o)
Warmly,
Marianne Vanderveen IBCLC, Netherlands
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