Monday, November 25, 2002

Rotman Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2002 Presented by BMO Financial Group Recognize Five Outstanding Canadian Business Owners

- Export Award - Kathryn From and Shery Leeder, Bravado Designs Inc.
Toronto (Ontario) - Presented by Export Development Canada (EDC)

Bravado! Designs Inc. is an innovative maternity lingerie company that
delights and excites women around the world. Bravado's success comes from
combining fashion with functionality to offer unique products in unexpected
patterns, ranging from floral, black and leopard print bras to matching
thongs, bikini briefs and nursing sleepwear.
icWales - Campaign to stop male moans over breastfeeds "
Nov 26 2002

Madeleine Brindley Health Correspondent Madeleine.Brindley@Wme.Co.Uk, The Western Mail
SAGGING breasts, lack of sex drive and the potential embarrassment of breastfeeding in public places.

But these aren't the worries facing new mothers who must decide between the breast and the bottle - these are the concerns of their partners.

Men's attitudes towards their partners' breastfeeding is thought to be one of the reasons behind the high proportion of women who still opt for formula ahead of the breast, despite the proven health benefits of breastfeeding." [Article goes on to note women whose partners are supportive of breastfeeding are 33x more likely to do it! - jc]

Thursday, November 21, 2002

Breast is best "

Women now have the right to breastfeed at work

By SHELLY DECKER, EDMONTON SUN

Many women don't know they have the right to breastfeed at work, believes a spokesman for a local advocacy group.
Despite a Calgary decision last year that ruled in favour of a woman's right to bring her child into the office to breastfeed, the topic comes up at most monthly meetings of an Edmonton La Leche League chapter.
"My sense is that many women either don't start breastfeeding because they're anticipating returning to work or they stop before they return to work because they don't know how they're going to make it work," said Fiona Audy, a spokesman for the group that provides breastfeeding support and information.
"I'd say it's a big issue."
"Women are worried about how it's going to be received in the workplace. I don't think it's one of those things that gets talked about enough that people realize it's a right."
The topic garners interest at workplace seminars given by Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission education director Nicholas Ameyaw."
[Such a good point made by Audy - women need to know that it's possible to continue breastfeeding after they returnto work. Note also this article references a woman who has a 10-month-old daughter and who plans to express milk when she returns to work in 2 months. How many people will notice that this mom has decided it's important to continue breastmilk beyond the first year? yay! - jc]

Wednesday, November 20, 2002

Benson Baby Gets Sick, Mom Suspects Recalled Formula "

Wednesday, November 20, 2002
Benson Baby Gets Sick, Mom Suspects Recalled Formula
By JON SOLES Of The Record Staff
Annette Mize said Parent?s Choice baby formula, a Wal-Mart brand, may have made her 6-month-old son Seth sick. Daily Record Photo/Jon Soles
A soy-based baby formula has been recalled because it may contain a bacteria that causes infections in high-risk infants.
One Johnston County mother said her infant son is sick after digesting the recalled product.??Annette Mize, who lives on Fairground Road near Benson, said she was feeding her 6-month-old son, Seth, Parent?s Choice soy-based infant food ? the Wal-Mart store brand. She said he experienced severe diarrhea last week and again this week. She said the diarrhea is so severe, it caused her son to bleed." [Woman is also upset that Wal-Mart didn't publicize the recall..- jc]
Natural choice
Tom McCoag / Amherst Bureau
Nancy Letcher gets help from five-month-old Abbey as she writes a note on her Cumberland County Breastfeeds calendar. Letcher was one of more than a dozen women who posed with their children for the calendar.

Natural choice
Calendar designed to encourage breastfeeding as healthier, cheaper than bottles, formula

By Tom McCoag / Amherst Bureau

Amherst - BEING photographed for a calendar promoting breastfeeding came naturally for Carey Ewert and her six-month-old son Ocean.

"It wasn't strange at all posing for the photographer, Catherine Bussiere," Ewert says, glancing over at the calendar whose cover features her and Ocean. "It was something we were doing anyway, and as far as I was concerned it was just a picture of me feeding my baby."

Ewert was one of more than a dozen women photographed breastfeeding their babies for Cumberland County Breastfeeds, a 2003 calendar produced by the Cumberland Breastfeeding Network to encourage the process in the county.

"I was four months pregnant when I came to Nova Scotia from Alberta, and I was shocked because awareness here about breastfeeding is a lot less than it is in Alberta," Ewert says.

"In fact, in the month that I gave birth to Ocean, I was the only mother who told the nurses at the hospital that I was going to breastfeed my baby."
Women encouraged to breastfeed for longer "

A breastfeeding support group says there must be a mental shift if breastfeeding rates are to increase.
The Government has launched an initiative encouraging more women to breastfeed and for longer." [New Zealand's health ministe rhas a new action plan, "Breastfeeding: a Guide to Action." Breastfeeding rates drop from about two-thirds at six weeks to half at three months.]

Tuesday, November 19, 2002

Nursing mother refused option of pumping breast milk "Arcom Publishing Inc. - Fauquier Times-Democrat


By Bill McIntyre November 12, 2002


Wearing a clean white one-piece pajama sleeper, Marsh Run's 8-week-old Victoria Lynn Boutwell has become the center of attention in a controversy between criminal justice officials and a recently incarcerated nursing mother.
Sporting a shock of curly black hair, a curious smile and a pair of attentive dark brown eyes, little Victoria Lynn rests comfortably in her father's arms while she fusses over her nighttime bottle of Enfamil formula. ...
Boutwell delivered a breast pump to the Warrenton Detention Center for Moore, but medical officials there disallowed its use.
"I called to make sure she got the breast pump and that's when the nurse told me that the doctor said she was not entitled to it because she was incarcerated," he said.
Dr. David Fairbanks, who operates a family practice in Warrenton, was hired by county officials to provide medical services at the Warrenton jail twice a week.
Invoking doctor-patient confidentiality, he declined to discuss Moore's case specifically, but explained that breast pumping would be allowed if it were the only means available for providing nutrition to a baby.
"But formula is cheap and half of America was fed on formula since the '60s and we've all done OK with it," he said.
Fairbanks added that part of his job was to protect the county from potential litigation.
"We just can't afford it. You would hate to have something go wrong with the milk (opening the county to potential lawsuits)," he said...."

[This woman is now in another jail where she is allowed to pump and she is trying to re-lactate. - JC]
Health24 - News Pioneers join to fight Aids
November 19, 2002
Two pioneers in Aids research who had fallen out bitterly over the discovery of the virus which causes the disease announced that they had joined forces to devise a trial vaccine.

The scheme, announced at a meeting in the capital of the West African state of Cameroon, brings together Luc Montagnier of France and Robert Gallo of the United States, who were jointly credited with identifying the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Making the vaccine a top priority for Africa
Gallo said the two had devised a candidate vaccine against HIV, clinical trials for which could start in the next 18 months.

"If it works, I swear I'll do everything I can to make it a top priority for Africa," he said.

In the nearly two decades since HIV was identified as the cause of a fatal disease of the immune system, the quest for a vaccine has been a notoriously neglected area.

No vaccine past phase-three trials yet
Numerous trial vaccines have been put to clinical trial, the term for testing them on human volunteers to see whether they are safe and effective.

But none has so far cleared the three-phase procedure and is on public release.

Only one - AIDSVAX - has so far made it to the Phase III stage, for testing on a large batch of volunteers, and its results are expected in the first quarter of next year.

Another vaccine hopeful, a combination of AIDSVAX and ALVAC-HIV, made by Aventis Pasteur of France, is being launched in Thailand later this year among 16 000 volunteers.

Preventing mother-to-child transmission
Montagnier told the meeting that he and Gallo were also working on a vaccine to help reduce risk of HIV transmission from infected mothers to their babies via breast milk.

The vaccine could be added to the tuberculosis jab, he hoped.
allAfrica.com -- Nigeria: HIV Risk Increases With Prolonged Breastfeeding - Study HIV Risk Increases With Prolonged Breastfeeding - Study

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Vanguard (Lagos)
November 19, 2002
Posted to the web November 19, 2002

Sola Ogundipe


HIV-positive nursing mothers and their infants who are placed on anti-retroviral drugs for a short time can produce levels of mother-to-child HIV transmission as low as six per cent, but about 20 per cent of such infants are eventually infected if breastfed over a prolonged length of time.

This was the outcome of a randomized trial conducted among 1,797 pregnant women living with HIV in Tanzania, South Africa, and Uganda. In the trial, published in Lancet, three oral drug regimens using zidovudine and lamivudine to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission (MTCT) were compared. One group of women received the two common antiretroviral drugs before, during, and after delivery. The second group received the regimen during an after delivery. Infants of mothers in these first two groups also received the drugs, a third group of women received the drugs only after delivery and a fourth group was given a placebo.

Monday, November 18, 2002

Study: More kids allergic to peanuts "Percentage of children's positive reactions triples since 1989

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, 2002 More children are developing peanut allergies, and it could be because more pregnant and breast-feeding women are eating peanuts, British researchers reported Monday. The percentage of children testing positive for peanut allergy at one center has tripled since 1989, the team at the clinic, the David Hide Asthma and Allergy Research Center on Britain's Isle of Wight, reported. [I wonder if they know that more pregnant and breast-feeding women are eating peanuts, or if they're just speculating? - JC]

Thursday, November 14, 2002

The making of a female mullah The Spectator, Mary Kenny, 14/11/2002 " I was glad to read that Madonna, the singer, had delivered herself of a lecture on "media morality" last week, and condemned the sleaze and lack of sexual morals that now characterise American television. The object of her particular critique was a tape of an American mother who persists in breast-feeding her son at the age of eight. Should an American state order a mother to stop breast-feeding her child when he turns eight? The State of Illinois did so order, and Madonna not only strongly supported the state in this measure; she also condemned the woman, and the television companies for screening the breast-feeding event. Madonna has discovered that not every personal "choice" is acceptable. I have been watching Madonna for a while, ever since she moved into her forties, and especially since she gave birth to a son. Madonna is, I think, 'on the turn'. That is, she is in the process of evolving from girl rebel to mother of morality; from outrageous enfant terrible in full-throttle rebellion against her parents.... Presently she will be deploring the common use of coarse language and over-explicit imagery. In any given culture there are a number of women in the public realm who arbitrate on manners and morals. Usually, these are middle-aged women who become the guardians of marriage, family life and general decorum. Historically, some of these Mullahs of Morality have been agony aunts - in the 1950s characters such as Mary Grant and Evelyn Holmes were ferociously bossy upholders of conventional morality - but after Marje Proops, Anna Raeburn and Claire Rayner the agony-aunt role shifted from guardian of morality to sex therapist, thus leaving a vacancy for the Morality Mullah. For a while, Mary Whitehouse and Victoria Gillick filled the role, but in the last decade or so it has tended to be female newspaper columnists who arbitrate on Morals and Manners."
[A reasonably thoughtful essay about what happens when "feminists" bear sons. But Kenny argues we need more, not fewer "moral mullahs" who will "lay down the law" in the face of an "uncouth strain of people who have no idea how to behave", produced by capitalism. Goodness, the act of breastfeeding an older child is a product of capitalism? Amazing twist in logic. - jc]
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Breastfeeding training urged Breastfeeding training urged

Helen Carter
Thursday November 14, 2002
The Guardian

Unicef is today calling for better training of midwives and health visitors to support breastfeeding mothers.

It has produced a set of guidelines after it discovered that many newly qualified health professionals lacked knowledge and skills to help with breastfeeding. The programme was launched at the annual conference of the UN children's fund in Harrogate. Andrew Radford, Unicef's programme director, said that the lack of a reliable and consistent standard of breastfeeding education in Britain had undermined mothers' chances of feeding their babies successfully.
After First Baby, Husband's Share of Housework Key "

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - After the arrival of baby, new fathers can help hold on to marital harmony by picking up a broom more often, according to new research.


Researchers in the Netherlands found that among the new parents they followed for 2 years, wives and husbands often fell into traditional gender roles after the birth of their baby. Overall, wives took on more housework and bore the brunt of child care, while cutting back on work outside the home." [Post this up in the hospital and give it to nurses who suggest feeding formula will let dad "participate" in the childcare. - JC]

Wednesday, November 13, 2002

In vitro seen a success in older women"

By Alice Dembner, Globe Staff, 11/13/2002

Menopause is no longer a bar to healthy women over 50 who want to have children, according to a study released today that indicates science is again pushing back the tide of human aging.


In the largest study of its kind, fertility specialists at the University of Southern California report that 42 out of 77 women ages 50 to 63 who underwent in vitro fertilization at their center gave birth to healthy babies. And three of the women had a second child in a subsequent pregnancy after 50. All of the women used eggs from younger donors." The JAMA report abstract [No mentions of if these women were successful in their efforts to breastfeed. note the c-section rate was 68 per cent for singletons.- JC]
NEWS.com.au | Alcohol boosts cancer risk (November 14, 2002) HOME?> "
Alcohol boosts cancer risk
By Jenny Hope in London
November 14, 2002

DRINKING a single glass of wine a day increases a woman's risk of getting breast cancer by 6 per cent, according to a cancer research study.
It shows that every year thousands of women could be saved from the trauma of the disease by giving up drinking.

The huge Cancer Research UK study reveals that heavy alcohol consumption is particularly dangerous, with women drinking more than a bottle of wine a day at 40 to 50 per cent higher risk of the disease.

Rising levels of drinking by women have already contributed to more cases of breast cancer in recent years ? and the toll could go higher if the trend continues upwards.

The study estimates around one in 20 breast cancer cases each year can be blamed on drinking. Its results, which come at a time when young women are drinking more than ever, could lead to revised guidance from the Department of Health which currently recommends women drink no more than the equivalent of two to three small glasses of wine a day.



Professor Valerie Beral of Cancer Research UK's cancer epidemiology unit at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, said: "This research tells us there is a definite link between alcohol and breast cancer and the evidence suggests that the more a woman drinks the greater her risk." She said drinking had contributed to rising numbers of breast cancer cases, although other factors such as the trend for women to remain childless or have smaller numbers of children and not breastfeed had probably had a bigger effect." [So, which will become the most common message, "breastfeed to reduce your cancer risk" or will they say "stop drinking to reduce your cancer risk."? - JC]

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

Breast-Feeding Does Not Reduce Infant Colic: Report
November 12, 2002 01:20 PM ET "
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Breast-feeding does not prevent infants from developing colic, the discomfort leading to incessant and inconsolable crying that some infants suffer from during the first weeks of life, researchers report.

Infant colic tends to peak during the first 6 weeks of life and taper off by the end of the second month. There is no known cause, and studies have yielded conflicting results on whether factors such as parental smoking and breast-feeding might increase the risk. Breast-feeding is thought to boost immunity and enhance the bond between the mother and infant.

But according to the current report, there was no association between the source of infant nutrition at 1 week of age and the development of colic at 6 weeks. Twenty-three percent of breast-fed babies were described as having colic, compared with 21% of infants who received only formula and 29% of infants who received a combination of breast milk and formula." [I suppose we should be saying that formula doesn't increase the risk of colic... - jc]
Yahoo! News - Breast-Feeding May Lower Rheumatoid Arthritis Risk"
Tue Oct 29, 5:40 PM ET

By Charnicia E. Huggins

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who spend a total of 2 or more years of their lives breast-feeding may be less likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis than those who breast-feed for 3 months or less, new study findings show." [This study joins a host of others showing the health benefits of breastfeeding to the mother - other risks that are increased by low breastfeeding duration include breast cancer and osteoporosis. - JC]

Wednesday, November 06, 2002

Breaking News: Madonna outraged over breastfeeding clip "

Madonna has demanded higher standards of decency on TV after a US station broadcast footage of a mother breast-feeding her eight-year-old son.

"People have no morals, I swear to God," she told Los Angeles radio station KIIS-FM.
"The things that people do for ratings. It's unforgivable." [It's intriguing that Madonna has chosen to focus on the side issue of ABC airing the tape. - JC]
Ankyloglossia: Assessment, Incidence, and Effect of Frenuloplasty on the Breastfeeding Dyad
...
Conclusion. Ankyloglossia is a relatively common finding in the newborn population and represents a significant proportion of breastfeeding problems. Poor infant latch and maternal nipple pain are frequently associated with this finding. Careful assessment of the lingual function, followed by frenuloplasty when indicated, seems to be a successful approach to the facilitation of breastfeeding in the presence of significant ankyloglossia. " Pediatrics -- Abstracts: Ballard et al. 110 (5): e63 [Finally we have some ammunition for those peds who insist that tongue-tie is a rare problem and snipping the tie is an unwarranted procedure. - JC]

Tuesday, November 05, 2002

Sometimes in life size isn't everything


By Ellen Gillette correspondent
November 2, 2002

Size does matter.

It matters to Barbara Hewson, injured on an airplane last year because of the "obese passenger" seated next to her. Virgin Atlantic settled last week for about $20,000.

Accompanying the news story was a poll: If girth requires two seats, who should foot the bill, passenger or airline? (I'd bump them to first class at the coach rate -- unfair to those in the cheap seats but better than offloading expenses for other accommodations or lawsuits onto everyone anyway.)

Size matters to 15 percent of children in the United States 6-19 who are, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, overweight. As kids' waists have expanded, so have juvenile rates for gallbladder disease, sleep disorders, and Type 2 diabetes.

Parents (and let's face it, it's their fault) can avoid this by breastfeeding, taking charge of meals (i.e. parenting), eating with kids at home, turning off TV during meals, watching for signs of diabetes, and encouraging exercise (formerly known as "playing").

Size matters to the health care industry. Adult obesity is a factor in myriad diseases. It matters to insurance companies who say policies for overweight clients are a bad risk. It matters to food manufacturers searching for the elusive combo of metabolic magic and "Mmm."
Froma Harrop: Jetting in the breast milk "... Let's start with the company. I wonder how DeAnne's partners really feel about suspending their meetings so she can go off and breastfeed. How about the assistant who finds herself toting her boss's breast milk around hotel lobbies? Wasn't there a time, not long ago, when secretaries would complain if their male boss asked them to buy birthday presents for his wife? By the way, father Alvaro runs his own investment company right in town, but I bet you don't see toddlers running around his conference room."
Babies to spend decade in study to curb diabetes/a>
Researchers hope to prove suspected link to cow's milk
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Jodie Sinnema, Journal Staff Writer
The Edmonton Journal



Each day at 3 p.m., Destiny Smith knows she can haul out her box of Halloween candy and have a treat: a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup or a string of licorice.

Any more could be dangerous for the five-year-old. She has Type 1 diabetes and hopes her baby sister, Isabella, won't have to endure the same, sometimes painful daily routine of needle pricks and blood tests she does.

Destiny's parents, Gaylene and Cam Smith, are participating in a 10-year trial to see if they can prevent their newest daughter, three-month-old Isabella, from acquiring juvenile diabetes by delaying her exposure to a protein in cow's milk.

"It's a good cause because we might be able to prevent her or other babies from getting diabetes," said Gaylene, as Destiny got her insulin kit filled with needles and a glucometer to test her blood sugar.