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Breast bullies
An alarmist New York Times article says that feeding your baby formula may be as dangerous as smoking while pregnant. Isn't it time we cut non-nursing moms some slack?
Lori Leibovich [2006-06-14]

  • Smoking relationship

    I as most others am somewhat torn. I am a family doctor who delivers and cares for babies. It is a narrow line between agressively promoting breast feeding for my patients, and going too far and causing unneeded guilt.

    I know where all these smoking references started. There was a position paper a while ago (I can't find the reference) that showed that the marginal benefit of breast feeding, was almost equal to the marginal harm cause by pregnant women smoking. I can't argue the science of the article as I don't have it in front of me, but assuming that is true, is the comparison so wrong to make?

    We may not like the fact that breast has that much marginal benefit to the health of newborns vs. formula, but that seems to be the fact. Certainly society/laws etc should be set up in such a way as to make bf'ing easier, but for now we've got what we've got.

    By the way, I don't mention that fact when promoting bf'ing to my patients, as I am afraid of the guilt issue as well.

    -- DOCTORRICK
    [Read DOCTORRICK's other letters]
    Thursday, June 15, 2006 03:57 PM
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