There is also an interesting problem with making this discourse about 
breastfeeding as the norm.

If a women doesn't ever get pregnant, and give birth, what are her rates 
of cancer compared to women who (a) get pregnant, (b) get pregnant and 
births and (c) get pregnant and births and breastfeed.

Realistically, there are two categories to discuss: women who get 
cancer, and mothers who get cancer.

Breastfeeding is the baseline for mothers who get cancer.  But it's not 
the baseline for women-who-are-not-mothers who get cancer.  Having 
babies, may be its own baseline... but that's another one entirely!

Morgan Gallagher

Jacquie Nutt wrote:
> Causality has to be carefully tested (remember the recent "research 
> finding" that ran something like *people who had lots of ear 
> infections as children were more likely to end up with diabetes*).  
> There have been six recent articles on statistics on the BBC. 
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7605118.stm   See 
> particularly Lesson 5: Causality 
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7592579.stm
>
> I don't mean to be flippant - I DO believe that not-breastfeeding is 
> associated with higher incidences of cancers.  I have a hard time, 
> though, believing that more-than-a-few pregnancies can improve a 
> woman's health. Would be interested to hear of research otherwise.
>

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

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome




No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com 
Version: 8.0.169 / Virus Database: 270.6.19/1664 - Release Date: 9/10/2008 6:00 AM

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

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome