I have been reading this with interest. I just thought I woud remind you all that the official line (here in the UK from the Deaprtment of Health, supported by Royal College of Midwives, etc -- don't know the precise structures in the USA or elsewhere) is that this form of feeding -- breastmilk replacements by bottle (occassionally by cup) is considered to be the *only safe form of feeding* for babies born to women diagnosed HIV positive. But the research on HIV transmission rates is equivocal -- almost all studies have been done with *no* attention to breastfeeding style -- and the only study, to date, to distinguish exclusive breastfeeding from mixed breastfeeding, showed completely different transmission patterns. Yet in the face of such poor evidence, interventions to avoid breastfeeding are being imposed not only on women in Western countries but on women in Africa, Asia and many places around the globe. (And I should mention that studies have largely looked only at transmission rates, not at health outcomes.) If we treat this debate as seperate from discussions of other kinds of promotion of bottle (as in replacement) feeding we are going to wake up one day and find that we are living in a world in which it is *accepted* that there is a very big 'advantage' of bottle feeding in terms of HIV transmission. Or -- are we there already? Magda Sachs Breastfeeding Supporter, BfN, UK ps I will just remind you that there are some good papers on HIV and breastfeeding at: http://www.anotherlook.org/ http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kent/ http://www.geocities.com/tedgreiner/ *********************************************** 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