A colleague (a health educator) and I have been having lively (and friendly) discussions about breastfeeding promotion. She recently read "Milk, Money, and Madness" (Baumslag & Michels) and "Watch Your Language!" (Wiessinger) and admitted that *her buttons were pushed* by some of the information. She classifies herself as a feminist and feels that women should have a choice about whether or not to breastfeed (and not to be "pushed" to do so by anyone). Our discussions have revolved around why she has such strong reactions when she reads very pro-breastfeeding materials, since she is not against breastfeeding. In the course of such discussions I brought up, that as a health educator, she has been involved in campaigns which promote use of infant car seats, and why she feels that promoting car seat use is different than promoting breastfeeding - both reduce the risk that your infant may be "injured". She then had an "AH-HA". She is not convinced that the threat from feeding infant formula is great enough to produce behavior change. Thus, our conversation shifted to whether or not formal research had been done on the use of the health belief model and breastfeeding education/promotion. Refresher: the health belief model uses education to address perceived threat, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers to encourage behavior change. I plan to do a literature search for published research. QUESTION: Do you know of any unpublished/undistributed research on the use of the health belief model as the basis of prenatal breastfeeding education? Any info would be appreciated. TIA - Debi (who feels a research project brewing, in spite of best intentions to avoid over-committing...) [log in to unmask]