Letters to the Editor
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Still a question about breastfeeding, anyway
One thing that gives me pause about all the "breast is best" campaign is that none (or very very few) of the studies ever make clear whether their claims about breast milk are about the milk itself (so including pumped milk fed to the infant by someone besides the mother) or about milk fed directly from the breast, including the intimacy and bonding that comes from that process. So many breastfeeding warriors tout the "no bottles to sterilize" benefit in the same sentence with "you can pump at work". You can't have that one both ways!
I would really like to see a study where they fully compare the whole spectrum of breastfeeding vs bottled-breast-milk vs formula feeding. Such a study should include number of minutes spent during each feeding, who performed the feeding, how "close" did they feel to the baby during that time, what else were they thinking/doing during that time, etc. I feel that if these factors were taken into consideration, we would find a clearer link to what portion of childhood illnesses might be prevented by the immunity in breast milk, and what portion might be prevented by the reduced stress felt by the baby due to being held by a loving caregiver during the process, whether they're being fed from a breast or a bottle, and what that bottle contains.