I am a little behind with lactnet, I am happy that you have found the response "lovely". I translated the letter, the pediatrician is a wonderful person and very active in breastfeeding issues. I am glad to work with him and be part of his team. Rosellina Cosentino rn bsn ibclc Italy-Sicily I thought this was a lovely letter on the BMJ rapid responses today http://bmj.com/cgi/eletters/326/7379/13 What a lovely letter below to be found on the BMJ rapid responses today, in response to the article about analgesic effects of breastfeeding. Magda I'm a Newborn 23 January 2003 Sergio Conti Nibali, family pediatrician Messina (ITALY) 98123 I cannot speak, but I've always used my body movements, my facial expressions, my beckoning and my cries to make me understand. I'd like to say that for the past few years (about ten), I've been bothered more and more by all those people who continuously try to separate me from my mother as soon as I am born. They do not allow me to stay with her more than a few hours during the day. They do not allow me to suckle that delicious creamy fluid that they call colostrum. And if they do allow me, it's only when they decide. They advise my mother on when and how much I should eat. Often they do not allow me to drink my mother's milk, but rather a liquid that I dare to swallow only because I'm starving. I know that there are some people out there who try to protect me (1,2), but let me tell you that they are few, too few! The worst came when many people round the world started to think that they had to find proof that my desire to stay close to my mother and to suckle her milk as I wished, just as any puppy would do, was truly legitimate, in other words "effective". They started to carry out the best possible research, what they call RCT, according to "evidence based medicine". It is impossible for me to list all the RCTs they imposed upon me, because the Editor of the BMJ wouldn't let me add more than five references. But if you want, you can type "Breast Feeding" [MESH] in something called PubMed, you can limit the publication date from 1993 to 2003 and age to newborn, and search only the RCTs you will count 187 papers! I'd like to ask you to please stop wasting your time trying to demonstrate that doing what mother nature does is better than doing something else. Acknowledgement: I'd like to give many thanks to Sergio Conti Nibali, family paediatrician, who allowed me to speak out. 1. Editorial. A warm chain for breastfeeding. The Lancet 1994;344:1239-41 2. American Academy of Pediatrics Work Group on Breastfeeding. Breastfeeding and the use of human milk. Pediatrics 1997;100(6):1035-1039 Competing interests: None declared *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] 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