Thursday, August 25, 2005

Second opinion: Take it to the bank, breast milk is best: "
By ANDRE PICARD
Globe and Mail
Thursday, August 25, 2005 Page A13
Earlier this month, a California company launched the world's first commercial breast-milk bank. Prolacta Bioscience plans to obtain breast milk from lactating mothers around the United States, pasteurize it, and sell it to hospitals for the treatment of low-birth-weight babies. "Human breast milk has 100,000 different components and we only really know what a few thousand of them are and what they do," Elena Medo, chief executive officer of Prolacta, said at the launch of the venture. "It's an enormous area of discovery. I'm sure there's a reason for every one of those components and I'd like to know half of them in my lifetime." Dr. Medo, a scientist and entrepreneur, is saying what mothers have been saying for millenniums: Breast is best. The tragedy of this story is that a company is commercializing breast milk at a time when Canada has virtually abandoned its very successful network of not-for-profit breast-milk banks...

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Neighborhoodtimes: Nursing mothers have rights, too: "
By HILARY FLOWER
Published August 14, 2005
"I usually don't run afoul of authority figures much these days, but recently I got myself into some hot water at North Shore Pool. Here's how it went down: 'I'm sorry, ma'am, but you can't do that here.' I was nursing my 6-month-old baby to sleep while I chatted with my friends and watched my older children swim. I thought it might help to let her know that Florida Law protects mothers' rights to nurse in public..."
East Valley Tribune | Daily Arizona news for Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe, Mesa, Scottsdale : "Debate puts breast-feeding in the spotlight
By Mary K. Reinhart, TribuneAugust 13, 2005Four-month-old Aiden Milliron may be horrified in a few years to realize he was at the center of so much fuss about breasts. But his mother's insistence that she be allowed to breastfeed him in public has galvanized support among nursing mothers and could very well change state law. By thrusting breast-feeding into the public spotlight, Aiden's hungry tummy is causing people to examine their views about the practice and setting up an emotionally charged debate encompassing motherhood, public health, indecent exposure, private property and family values. And it's revealed more stories of nursing mothers being asked to leave department stores, ballfields and other public places...."

Thursday, August 11, 2005

The Seattle Times: Local News: Local efforts aim to promote breast-feeding by poor women: "Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
Local efforts aim to promote breast-feeding by poor women
By Kyung M. Song
Seattle Times staff reporter

"Jill Von Bruck breast-fed each of her sons, Alex and Aaron, for nearly 2-1?2 years. The Woodinville mother said she did it not only because of the nutritional value of breast milk, but also for the bonding benefits.
'My mother thinks breast-feeding is disgusting,' said Von Bruck, 32, who was raised on formula. 'I don't understand how someone would not nurse. That's what breasts are for.'
Von Bruck is an exception in America, where at least 80 percent of mothers wean their babies off breast milk before they are a year old. And as an African-American mother, nursing her boys until their preschool years practically made Von Bruck an oddity...."