Wednesday, November 05, 2003

Daily Vanguard - Thousands of chemicals approved without safety testing" European officials vote to adopt toughter standards on U.S. products
Tom Avril
November 05, 2003

Without requiring lab tests to determine their safety, the U.S. government has approved thousands of chemicals for use in such products as sofa cushions, soaps, paints and baby bottles. On average, two more chemicals are approved every day. The result: consumers are unwittingly part of a kind of vast, uncontrolled lab experiment. 'We're treating (people) worse than lab rats,' Karen Florini, an attorney with the non-profit group Environmental Defense said. 'At least with lab rats, somebody bothers to collect the data.'"
Queen Mother%u2019s closure threat to breastmilk bank

The Glasgow Herald
HELEN PUTTICK, Health Correspondent
November 04 2003
" Breast milk will have to be relayed across Glasgow if the Queen Mother's maternity hospital closes or sick babies could suffer, specialists said yesterday. Fears the city will lose its 'life saving' breastmilk bank - which supplies parents who have trouble suckling - have also been raised."
HeraldNet: Breast-feeding gains acceptance in workplace
Published: Tuesday, November 4, 2003
Breast-feeding gains acceptance in workplace
By Samantha Critchell
Associated Press

NEW YORK -- A decade ago, most business executives -- both male and female -- thought new mothers who chose to continue breast-feeding once they returned to work were doing 'a nice thing' -- as long as they didn't talk about it at the office, said Carol Ann Friedman, an international board-certified lactation consultant.

Times have changed. "
New borns' skin-to-skin contact vital: research - National - smh.com.au"
November 3, 2003 - 1:23PM

Babies should have at least an hour of skin-to-skin contact with their mothers at birth to cut down on breastfeeding problems, yet many midwives separate them too early, research suggests.

Midwife Ruth Cantrill questioned 1,105 midwives throughout Australia to study their knowledge of newborn feeding practices and their ability in managing the first breastfeed. "