PhD Mathematics Professor and Breastfeeding

[PJJ]

http://www.stats.org/stories/2007/di...g_oct22_07.htm

http://www.stats.org/stories/breast_..._jun_20_06.htm


Contact Info: Phone: [phone] Fax: [phone]
E-Mail: [e-mail]
Web Site: http://math.gmu.edu/~rgoldin/

Pretty strong bias against mother's milk.

[SleeplessMommy]

Ugh ...

Type 2 diabetes may "only cause 3.1% of deaths in the USA", but there is a HUGE longterm impact on the patients quality of life and a huge financial impact - meds and testing can cost $100-500 per month or more. Type 2 diabetes is a large and increasing cost burden on USA's already overburdened, struggling health care system. A recent survey suggested that patients would give up years of their life to avoid the stress of "disease management".

Actuaries understand this - type 2 diabetes increases life insurance (annual) premiums by $1000 or more.

PS. breastfeeding helps Mom loose weight - reducing her risk of type 2 diabetes.

The AAP acknowledge that some of these benefits might be offset by longer doctor-office visits (in order to help women nurse), the costs of pumps and equipment, which the organization cavalierly says “should be covered” by insurance. (That’s consoling.) The AAP also claims that nursing provides “more time for attention to siblings and other family matters.”

..... While absenteeism has a financial cost, not holding a job has an even larger one – and nursing exclusively for six months typically means that the mother cannot hold down a full-time job.

Ugh! MOST nursing women never need help from a dr. I had 5 minutes of in-hospital visit with nurse/lactation consultant - and everything was fine.

[Momtwice]

A PhD who's never heard of a breast pump?

[treqi]

Nursing can also lead to depression or other unhealthy emotional states.

I'm pretty sure nursing gives mothers a "high" (or at least I get one) and that they are not distnguishing ppd in these nursing mothers(that prolly would have occured if they FFed anyways)

.....but even smokers and drinkers ought to consider the impact (and quantity) of their use on their babies.

Nursing and smoking is better than FFing and smoking..... and alcohol in small amounts isn't harmful and if you are an alcoholic I would hope you would have sought help during the pregnancy....

....at least in principle, because women (and families) who nurse are not the same as those who don’t, making any comparison of the outcomes extremely difficult.

WTH I don't have a college degree, my dh makes less than 30,000 dollars a year and I'm 20 yet I breastfeed if more "real" education about nursing was available and less "education" from Formula companys I think BFing rates would go up

...... and nursing exclusively for six months typically means that the mother cannot hold down a full-time job........few women who intend to work can maintain a commitment to breastfeeding.

Well I think something needs to change...... more pumping breaks for nursing moms (sure put a limit a 12mo whatever), maybe a couple of weeks paid leave I dunno I really think thats where the feminist movement messed up is they demanded equality to men and look what it got us (I'm no expert on feminisim I could be wrong if I am sorry)

[puddle]

Originally Posted by treqi

I dunno I really think thats where the feminist movement messed up is they demanded equality to men and look what it got us (I'm no expert on feminisim I could be wrong if I am sorry)

Personally, I know more men who get paid paternity leave than I do women who get paid maternity leave.

[Momtwice]

Dr. Christiane Northrup says depression is more common in ff moms.

[mommaduck]

And excuse me, but my mother worked full time and EBF'd (with the help of a good breastpump and a container for ice water). It never affected her work. One time it did affect a job I had only because I had a babe that REFUSED a bottle...would scream himself into sleep till I got home....yeah, well babe is more important than job...hubby just took up a second job instead. Doesn't mean we had to suddenly switch to formula...just rework how we did other things.

Oh, and nursing is about the best thing for PPD.

[mamadelbosque]

Yeah, I read that and was thinking about posting about it. I couldn't bare to actually read the whole thing (started getting too pissed) and just skimmed it... but ugh. As if diabetes is the only downfall of FF!!

[Tine]

...... and nursing exclusively for six months typically means that the mother cannot hold down a full-time job........few women who intend to work can maintain a commitment to breastfeeding.

Whatever! :

I must be a figment of somebody's imagination then. Wonder how I managed to BF 2 kids exclusively for 6+ mos. each while WOH FT? And how I've logged (so far) a total of 38 mos. BF? And how my kids have never had a drop of formula? I'm not rich and privileged. I'm no corporate bigwig with major perks. I've simply demanded my rights and committed myself to something VERY important to my children, myself, and my community.

[MamaBear1976]

Thanks for posting this. I read her 2006 article a while back, but this new one... Man, it really sounds like she has it in for breastfeeding. I mean, she's treating breastfeeding and formula feeding like they're both the expected, equivalent norms for infant feeding, and then she's going and talking from there... It's really backwards...

If you assume breastfeeding is the biological norm, which, duh, it IS... : Then statements like these:

But the costs of nursing are substantial: the reduced time for work due to the need to pump, nurse, eat and sleep has a huge economic and social impact on women and their families. Nursing can also lead to depression or other unhealthy emotional states...

...seem all the more ridiculous! I mean, shouldn't the goal of society be to promote and encourage breastfeeding, since it is what the human body is designed to receive upon being born???

And where is she getting her (mis)information about the postpartum depression??? Everything I've read on the subject says ppd is minimized by breastfeeding (and therefore, maximized by formula-feeding). The only depression I felt postpartum wasn't due to the breastfeeding; it was due to the breastfeeding NOT WORKING OUT. I am confident that the reason why I didn't suffer a worse postpartum experience is because I continued to lactate despite low supply and baby not latching on, and the act of lactation alone helped me, even if it was incomplete (since I exclusively pump). I think if I had given up on lactation completely, THAT would have resulted in a depression, definitely. I think, physically, that the act of lactation can only help postpartum women, especially psychologically, and I will always encourage women to try it, even if it's challenging. It's a challenge worth undertaking.

I have very little trust in scientists that use their "science" to talk smack about breastfeeding (and that includes scientists that speak of formula-feeding as though it were the expected norm for babies; or those who speak of formula feeding and breastfeeding outcomes as though they were equivalent). I don't really care who they are or how prestigious. Ranjit Chandra's story taught me that.

[AGierald]

to me, it really sounds like she thinks breastfeeding is a slap in the face to the feminist movement? sorry but whats more feminine than breastfeeding and giving birth-- two things that ONLY women can do?

[julie128]

This quote from the second link says it all for me:

"Nursing and infection rates
Let’s be honest: if the only adverse consequence of not nursing is that babies get a few more colds, we could leave the decision making to the parents."

I would have to say I agree with that. If formula was only associated with a greater number of colds, then I think we could say there is little difference between formula and breastfeeding. However, because formula is associated with greater health and intelligence risks across the board, I think we can safely call it inferior (and more expensive) than breastfeeding.

In one of my LC text books, there was a study discussed that found that societies that breastfeed for longer tend to be kinder, gentler societies than those that wean at less than a year (They found one "primitive" society that abruptly weaned at 6 months that was rather violent.). Now to go dig up that page.... Which book was it? Darn.

I have homework! What am I doing here!

[Breastfeeding Insomniac]

That is an infuriatingly biased distortion of facts. I feel sick over how he can have so many letters behind his name and its still legal to be as ignorant as he is!

[SleeplessMommy]

Originally Posted by Blondimom728

That is an infuriatingly biased distortion of facts. I feel sick over how he can have so many letters behind his name and its still legal to be as ignorant as he is!

Its a female professor... but not of public health. Public health professors would never downplay diabetes like she has. :

[My4Boys]

Originally Posted by Blondimom728

That is an infuriatingly biased distortion of facts. I feel sick over how he can have so many letters behind his name and its still legal to be as ignorant as he is!

Even more frustrating is that this person uses the title Dr. on all of the papers she publishes for the "non-partisan" website stats.org, leading people to believe she is a medical doctor. She has a Phd in mathematics, so her understanding of the math behind the studies may be mathmatecally correct, but her understanding of the science behind the studies and the health implications is painfully lacking. This website (stats.org) drives me crazy and publishes so many papers by this Rebecca Goldin that I question thier motives. There isn't a recently released pro-breastfeeding study that they have not torn to shreds, but they didn't touch the ridiculously flawed obesity study that was release at the same time as the appetite supressing formula!

[Ruthla]

I don't see any bias against mother's milk in that article- all I saw was somebody looking at the numbers and concluding that some lactavists' claims may be exaggerated- but clarifying that the benefits DO exist.

Then she started speculating that the studies are meaningless because formulas have "improved so much", and that parents years ago may have introduced cow's milk at much younger ages. Of course, she didn't mention that BF parents could have done the same thing regarding the introduction of solids and undiluted cow's milk.

For example, my 18yo cousin was supplemented with formula from birth, switched to supplemental cow's milk at 6mo, and completely weaned (to cow's milk, not formula) by 10mo. This was only 17 years ago, and she would have been in the "breastfed" catagory!

OK, just read the second article. What a biased piece of work! I don't even see as many "hard numbers" in the 2nd article.

[PJJ]

Great ideas mamas

Hope that you are sending her your ideas to educate the PhD about lactation.

Keep it coming. )

[llamalluv]

As with most research on breastfeeding, there are no controlled studies to test the hypothesis that nursing is better than formula.

So, do formula companies who say "we all know breast is best..." just make that up?

And if so, WHY would they "admit" a lie?!

[MaryJaneLouise]

Stats.org article:

http://goodenoughmummy.typepad.com/g...org_breast.htm

More later.

[MaryJaneLouise]

According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2004 3.1 percent of deaths were due to diabetes. Given that everyone dies eventually, not developing diabetes would extend life for about 1.2 percent of the population. Another way of seeing that is that nursing has a 1.2 percent chance of saving your child's life due to diabetes. Contrast that to death by heart disease, which claims the lives of over 27 percent of those who die. Making decisions that affect your offspring's likelihood to die by heart disease will have a much greater effect than nursing will.

Completely ignoring that type 2 diabetes SEVERELY affects cardiovascular health, including heart attacks & strokes : logic here.