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That's not my understanding of the evidence, so I called Miriam Labbok, MD, a professor of public health at the University of North Carolina, whom I was surprised wasn't quoted in the article. Labbok has thirty-plus years in the field of maternal and child health, was recently senior advisor to UNICEF on infant feeding, and lately she's been organizing conferences on feminism and breastfeeding. Labbok called in NPR to rebut Rosin (she's has been on quite the media tour) and cosigned a letter to the Atlantic along with two dozen other researchers and advocates: "The online review of the medical literature described in the article misrepresents the evidence . . . " it reads. The American Academy of Pediatrics also responded: "The evidence for the value of breastfeeding is scientific, it is strong, and it is continually being reaffirmed by new research work." |
The problem is that it should never have come to be seen as equivalent to normal physiology, the superiority of which is really quite breathtaking when you think about it. |