Off the Line

"Nothing in education is so
astonishing as the amount
of ignorance it accumulates
in the form of inert facts."
--Henry Brooks Adams 1838-1918--

Baby Formula Makers' Actions in N. America Slammed

Reuters Health
By Robert James Parsons
Friday, May 17, 2002

GENEVA (Reuters Health) - Two major reports severely criticizing the infant food industry's practices in the US and Canada were released here this week during the World Health Organization's annual general assembly of all member states, the World Health Assembly.

Two independent, not-for-profit non-governmental organisations based their critique on the WHO's International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes. Voted at the 1981 WHA (with only the USA voting against it), the code was designed to foster breastfeeding and end misuse of infant formula that still, according to WHO and UNICEF calculations, results in some 1.5 million infant deaths per year.

One report, "Selling Out Mothers and Babies: Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes in the USA," was presented at the meeting by Barbara Heiser of the Maryland-based National Alliance for Breastfeeding Advocacy. According to Heiser, none of the WHO's code on breast milk substitutes has ever been written into legislation in the US. In 1998, according to the report, the US government spent almost $2 billion buying infant formula.

Assailing aggressive advertising campaigns influencing both mothers and health care professionals "to adopt the view... that formula is equivalent to breast milk and that formula-fed babies do just as well as breastfed ones," the report dubs breastfeeding "a dying culture." As proof, Hesier notes that exclusive breastfeeding, recommended by the WHO for the first six months after birth, drops off sharply after only two weeks. By six months, only one in eight mothers is still exclusively breastfeeding.

Elisabeth Sterken of Canada's Infant Feeding Action Coalition is author of the second of the two reports criticising North American breastfeeding policies. Titled "Out of the Mouths of Babes: How Canada's Infant Food Industry Defied WHO Rules and Puts Infant Health at Risk," Sterken and colleagues point out abuses arising from similarly aggressive campaigns in Canada. These involve direct mailings and free infant formula sample distribution, reinforced by indirect targeting through advertising in parent and baby magazines.

"It is virtually impossible," she told Reuters Health, "to escape being targeted [by infant formula companies] once you're pregnant."

David Clark, legal officer for UNICEF's Nutrition Division, speaking to Reuters Health, hailed the US report as "a very good study of how the companies ignore the fact that the WHO code applies to all countries." He stated that there are "all sorts of violations you wouldn't see in other parts of the world," adding, "Companies try to limit the scope of the code to the developing world. Mothers and babies in North America deserve the same protection as mothers and babies everywhere else."

Mead-Johnson, which with about two-thirds of the market in the US came under particular scrutiny in the US report, expressed concern that they might be in violation of the code. Pete Paradossi, spokesman for the company, told Reuters Health that, although he had not yet seen the report, Mead-Johnson paid careful attention to such assessments and, when violations were discovered, acted promptly to correct them.

Both reports call on government public health officials to put child and maternal health ahead of commercial considerations and implement the code as public health policy. This would mean severely limiting the market for manufacturers of infant formula and supplementary foods, since the underlying principle of the code is "Breast is best."

On Friday, a resolution of the currently running WHA, aiming to broaden the scope of the code by creating a Global Strategy on Infant and Young Child Feeding, was sent back to the drafting committee following reservations expressed by numerous member states. It was feared that without specific clarifications the resolution as worded could lead to conflicts of interest between public health ministries and industry in the course of the strategy's implementation.

Breast-feeding Less Likely with Unwanted Pregnancy

Reuters Health
Monday, May 27, 2002

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who have unintended pregnancies, which account for roughly half of all pregnancies, are less likely to breast-feed their infants, study findings suggest.

Breast milk is widely viewed as the best source of nutrition for infants, and breast-feeding is the preferred method of feeding for at least the first year of life, the study authors point out.

Their study aimed to identify breast-feeding levels among women who had not intended to become pregnant, in part because past research has identified numerous harmful behaviors and adverse outcomes associated with unintended pregnancies and births, according to Dr. Julie Scott Taylor of Brown University in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and Dr. Howard J. Cabral of Boston University in Massachusetts.

The researchers studied more than 6,700 first-time mothers between the ages of 15 and 44. They found that more than half had never breast-fed, while about one-quarter had breast-fed for at least 16 weeks.

Moreover, women with unintended pregnancies were more likely to never start breast-feeding and more likely to discontinue it compared with mothers with intended pregnancies, Taylor and Cabral report in the May issue of The Journal of Family Practice.

This finding was strongest among white women, the researchers point out.

"Neither socioeconomic status nor educational level is the explanation, as both of these factors were controlled for," the investigators report. "Perhaps Hispanic and black women are more accepting of unintended pregnancy than white women and these results reflect cultural differences," they suggest.

"For now, women with unwanted pregnancies, especially white women, should be targeted for breast-feeding counseling," Taylor and Cabral conclude.

SOURCE: The Journal of Family Practice 2002;51:431-436.

HIV Breastmilk Still Best, When Solar Pasteurized

A Danish breastmilk pasteurizing device joined the fight against HIV.

Pasteurizing HIV-infected breast milk at 60 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes using solar-power inactivates HIV and pathogenic bacteria, say researchers in Fredensborg, Denmark.

A nursing mother is able to operate the breast milk pasteurize herself, for under $100 a year, said Dr. Anders Fjendbo Jorgensen, of Kolding Hospital, in Denmark. Antiviral medication for HIV costs up to $12,000 per year.

With solar pasteurization of breastmilk, antibodies are unharmed, and the health advantages of breastmilk as opposed to formula, are maintained, Dr Jorgensen said.

At the Muhimbili Medical Centre, in Dar es

Salaam, 120 mothers are expressing their milk and pasteurizing it for their own children and others that are premature, in incubators, have cleft palate, or similar disadvantages.

Dr. Fjendbo Jorgensen is a specialist in tropical and infectious diseases and has been working for The National AIDS Control Programme in

Tanzania for three years.

The pharmaceutical industry has not been supportive in promoting the pasteurizing concept, he said.

Diet, exercise help breastfeeding moms lose weight

NEW YORK, May 07 (Reuters Health) -- Combining dieting and aerobic exercise may be a more effective weight-loss strategy than dieting alone for women who are breastfeeding, according to a team of California researchers."Short-term weight loss (about 1 kilogram or 2 pounds per week) through a combination of dieting and aerobic exercise appears safe for breastfeeding mothers and is preferable to weight loss achieved primarily by dieting because the latter reduces maternal lean body mass," conclude Megan A. McCrory and colleagues.

Their study, published in the May issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, included 67 breastfeeding women who had delivered a baby 2 to 4 months previously.

A third of the women were randomly assigned to a diet group, a third to a diet plus exercise group, and a third to a "control" group, for 11 days. Women in the diet and the diet plus exercise groups restricted their calorie intake by about 35%.

Results showed that women lost an average of 1.9 kg (4 pounds) in the diet group and 1.6 kg (3.5 pounds) in the diet plus exercise group. However, combining dieting with exercise allowed women in this group to conserve lean body mass, which helps to enhance fat loss. Women in the control group lost an average of 0.2 kg (about 0.4 pounds).

There was no difference between groups in changes in milk volume or composition, and energy output, and infant weight, the study notes.

The authors, from the University of California at Davis, say the results of their study show that dieting and aerobic exercise is a safe weight-loss strategy for breastfeeding mothers.

However, the results may not apply to women who diet for more than 11 days or to those with lower initial body fat than subjects in the study. They also note that "a less severe energy deficit than the 35% imposed in this study may be more desirable and easier for overweight women to achieve in the long term."

SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1999;69:959-967.

Vaccine Damage
by Senator Dan Burton, U.S. Congress,

Government Reform Committee
U.S. House of Representatives
"Autism: Present Challenges, Future Needs -
Why the Increased Rates?"
Thursday , April 6, 2000
2154 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

This morning we're here to talk about autism. As we learned in our August hearing, the rates of autism have escalated dramatically. What used to be considered a rare disorder has become a near-epidemic. We've received hundreds of letters from parents across the country. They've shared with us their pain and their challenges. My staff tells me they cried from the heart-break of many of these letters.

I don't have to read a letter to experience the heartbreak. I see it in my own family. {Slide 1} My grandson Christian was born healthy. He was beautiful and tall. We were already planning his NBA career. He was outgoing and talkative. He enjoyed company and going places. Then, his mother took him for his routine immunizations and all of that changed. He was given what so many children were given - DTaP, OPV, Haemophilus, Hepatitis B, and MMR - all at one
office visit. That night Christian had a slight fever and
he slept for long periods of time. When he was awake he would scream a horrible high-pitched scream. He would scream for hours. He began dragging his head on the furniture and banging it repeatedly. Over the week-and-a-half after the vaccinations, Christian would stare into space and act like he was deaf. He would hit himself and others, which was something he had never done. He would shake his head from side to side as fast as he could. He lost all language.

Unfortunately, what happened to Christian is not a rare
isolated event. Shelly Reynolds will testify today.   Her
organization, Unlocking Autism, will be displaying thousands of pictures of autistic children at the "Hear the Silence" Autism Rally this Saturday. Forty-seven percent of the parents who provided these pictures, felt that their child's autism was linked to immunizations.

We frequently hear about children with chronic ear
infections and children who became autistic after spiking a fever with their vaccinations.

Liz Burt was one of the hundreds of parents who contacted us. Her five-year-old son, Matthew, has been classified autistic. He was developing normally. At age 15 months, following his MMR vaccine, he began to regress. Since the time of his vaccination, he's had chronic diarrhea. {Slide 2} This is very prevalent in autistic children. He also didn't sleep on a regular basis for over three years. Liz took her son to numerous gastroenterologists in prominent medical facilities in the United States. with no resolution. Finally, this past November, Liz took her son to London, to the Royal Free Hospital. A team of medica experts there examined Matthew. They felt that he had a bowel obstruction. To the family, this seemed impossible since he had constant diarrhea. An x-ray indicated that Matthew had a fecal mass in his colon the size of a small cantaloupe. After the obstruction was cleared with
laxatives, Matthew underwent an endoscopy and colonoscopy. The lesions in Matthew's bowel tested positive for the measles virus.

Dr. Andrew Wakefield and Professor John O'Leary will be
testifying today. Their research has uncovered a possible connection between inflammatory bowel disorder in children with autism who received the MMR vaccine and have the measles virus in their small intestines.

Since coming home from England and being treated for chronic Inflammatory Bowel Disorder, Matthew has finally begun to sleep through the night. I know it's a welcome relief for his family. Unfortunately Matthew's story is not that unusual in children with autism.

It's important that I make two things very clear today. I am not against vaccinations, and I don't think that every autistic child acquires autism after receiving childhood immunizations. {Slide 3} However, there is enough evidence emerging of some kind of a connection for some children that we can't close our eyes to it.   We have to learn more.

Dr. Mary Megson of Richmond, Virginia will testify about the correlation she has seen in children with Autism and
Attention Deficient Disorder. She's seen a correlation
between Vitamin A depletion and immune-suppression after receiving the MMR vaccine.

There are certainly children who are born with autism. They have what can be called classical autism. There are however, a growing number of children who develop normally and then acquire autism or atypical autism.

There most probably is a genetic component to autism. But genetics is not the only issue. Many children seem to have severe food sensitivities - particularly to gluten and casien - ingredients in the most common foods - dairy and wheat. Many of these children show signs of autism shortly after receiving their immunizations. Some of these children, as we will hear from Jeana Smith, have metal toxicities - aluminum and mercury. What is the source of these toxic substances?

As Dr. Goldberg will testify, maybe what we are seeing is not autism at all, but a neuro-immunologic dysfunction.

I'm very concerned about the increased number of childhood vaccines. I'm concerned about the ingredients that are put in these vaccines. I'm concerned about the way they're given. We've learned that most of the vaccines our children are given contain mercury, aluminum and formaldehyde. Last year the Food and Drug Administration added up the amount of mercury our babies were being given to learn that in the first six months of life they received more mercury than is considered safe. Why is it that the FDA licenses vaccines that contain neurotoxins like mercury and aluminum?

When asked about the increased rates in autism, many will immediately discount that there even is an increase. Even though the latest statistics from the Department of Education show increased rates in every state. {Slide 4} Others will say the increase is due to better diagnostic skills. Others will say it is because the diagnostic category was expanded.

{Slide 5} California has reported a 273% increase in
children with autism since 1988. {Slide 6}As for this
increase, twenty-one percent of all autistic children in
California live in the 29th district.

Florida has reported a 571% increase in autism {slide 7}. Maryland has reported a 513 % increase between 1993 and 1998. {Slide 8} You can't attribute all of that to better diagnostic skills.

(Slide 9} In 1999, there are 2,462 children ages 3 to 21 in Indiana diagnosed with autism. {Slide 10} That is
one-fourth of one percent of all the school children in
Indiana or 1 in 400. Twenty-three percent of these children live in the 6th district. {Slide 11} This increase is not just better counting.

If we want to find a cure, we must first look to the cause. We must do this now before our health and education systems are bankrupted, and before more of our nations' children are locked inside themselves with this disease.

Kenneth Curtis, part of Dave's Morning Show at Oldies 100 FM here in Washington, will set the stage by talking about being the parent of an autistic child. He will be followed by James Smythe of Carmel, Indiana. He will share how, through properly looking at autism as an illness, and addressing that illness, his son is improving.

Scott Bono from North Carolina lives close to one of the
finest medical facilities in the world - Duke University.
However, he has been unable to find medical experts who properly address his autistic son's needs. He is forced to drive 12 hours every four weeks for his son's medical treatments.

Dr. William Danker, the father of a 13 -year-old daughter with autism, and a scientist, will testify about the challenges of finding therapies and treatments that have adequate research. He will also talk about the battles of getting adequate education through the public school system.

We hear repeatedly that parents are not informed at the time of diagnosis by their school system what educational options an autistic child is entitled to. It is only after hiring lawyers and going through the legal process that many children have access to appropriate educational opportunities.

We're learning that the earlier autism is diagnosed and
treatments are begun, the better it is for the child.
Indiana is fortunate to have the First Steps Early
Intervention System - a nationally recognized system that provides early intervention services for children up to two years of age.

Families are forced to spend huge sums of money
out-of-pocket - even when they have good insurance, because autism is often specifically excluded. California passed legislation recently to require insurance companies to cover autism.   Parents spend 20 and 30 thousand dollars a year. What medical care is covered is often done so after extensive struggles with insurance providers.

We have a long hearing scheduled today with a broad spectrum of ideas presented. We will have a variety of medical approaches presented. We will hear about Secretin, which gained a great deal of media attention in the past year, and from which many parents have seen tremendous success.

Dr. John Upledger, a former advisor to the Office of
Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, will testify on the use of cranial sacral therapy. He is the Director of the Upledger Institute in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. For more than 25 years Dr. Upledger has been treating autistic children and helping families through this approach. Cranial Sacral Therapy is a gentle, powerful form of bodywork that directly influences the brain and spinal cord. It is used to treat pain, discomfort or trauma to the head or face, including TMJ dysfunction and headaches. Cranial Sacral Therapy can also relieve physical and emotional trauma. In addition to his work with autism, Dr. Upledger has achieved dramatic results in treating post-traumatic stress disorder in Vietnam Veterans.

In addition to medical treatments for the physical symptoms of autism, there are numerous therapies that are needed to help autistic children. Special educational approaches are needed. They can include intensive behavior modification known as A.B.A. or LOVAAS, music therapy, speech therapy, auditory integration and sensory integration as well as play
therapy.

We will hear from both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health about ongoing research and future needs. Of particular interest is the Brink Township study that has been evaluating a cluster of autism in Delaware.

This hearing will raise more questions than answer today. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to insure that we're being diligent in looking for the causes of autism. We have to do everything humanly possible to determine if there's something that can be done to unlock our children from the prison of autism.    I think that, as a top priority, we have to do much more research on the potential connection between vaccines and autism. We can't stick our heads in the sand and ignore this possibility. If we don't take action now, ten years from now may be too late, not only for this generation of children, but for our taxpayer-funded health and education systems that will collapse from trying to care for these children.

~~Sent to you by Gloria Lemay, Vancouver, B.C. please forward to your friends & family.

Yahoo! News Health Headlines
Monday October 4 12:55 PM ET

President signs bill to protect breastfeeding on federal property

WASHINGTON, Oct 04 (Reuters Health) -- Breastfeeding cannot be banned on federal property under legislation signed by President Clinton last week. The right-to-breastfeed provision was included in the annual spending bill for the Department of Treasury and the Postal Service.
The law prohibits the use of federal funds to ``implement, administer, or enforce any prohibition on women breastfeeding their children in Federal buildings or on Federal property.'' It was added to the measure at the urging of Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), who earlier this year introduced the ``Right to Breastfeed Act.''

This summer, at an event to underscore the need for the bill, Maloney was joined on Capitol Hill by several women who said they had been asked to leave the National Gallery of Art and other museums if they did not stop breastfeeding their babies.
``Although many states have already passed laws to protect breastfeeding in public, women on federal property have been asked to leave museums, public parks, and even the US Capitol Building,'' said Maloney in a statement. ``Experts tell us that breastfeeding is an essential practice for ensuring infants receive the nutrients they need to develop. I am proud that the federal government is setting the standard of welcoming a woman' s decision to breastfeed her child in our nation's capital and other federal property,'' she said.

Health

Going to school causes headaches, says a Finnish study

CHICAGO (Reuters)--Researchers in Finland discovered that the
children that start going to school suffer an increase in headaches,
probably due to the stress.

According to a study published on Monday, researchers who observed
1,433 children between 6 and 7 years of age, discovered a
"significant" increase in the number of occasional headaches during
the first 12 months after the beginning of the school year..

The specialists compared that period with the previous and subsequent
six months of the first school year.

"The effect of the beginning of the school in the incidence of
headaches had not previously been examined," said the study by the
University of Turku, in Finland.

We imagined that the beginning of school represents a stressful
change in children's life and it provokes headaches or increases the
frequency of the episodes of previous headaches during the first
years of school," it said. " Our hypothesis was true ".

The study was published in the June edition of Pediatrics,
publication of American Academy of Pediatrics.

(Copyright 1999 Reuters. All the reserved rights)

Breastfeeding Reduces Obesity in Children
Obesity is the most frequent nutritional disorder in children and is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease in adulthood.

UltraSound Dangers
Dr. Taylor, who is Professor of Diagnostic Radiology and Chief of the Ultrasound Section at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, makes the statement in this article "I would not let anybody get near my infant's head with a transducer unless I knew what the output was."

Groups Call for Bottle Safety Revisions

Vaccine Registry Raises Fears
Chicago Tribune 5/7/99

Breast-Feeding is a Skill -- Not a Crime
from the San Diego Union-Tribune
A mother is prosecuted for the death of her child; she had rare condition called insufficient milk syndrome.

Nasty Nestea

The Nestle Way

by Catherine Young

The Williamson Magor &Co Ltd. Tea Divison
call their tea leaves, dirt and dust on the floor
"floppy." Nasty Nestle buys their "floppy"
for 3 rupees for 50 kilograms, (110 pounds)
crushes it, teabags it, and sells it for human
consumption.

The bank gives 29 rupees per Canadian dollar. So
Nestle buys 50 kilograms of tea filth for .11 cents.

But what else could you expect from a company
that aggressively markets powdered infant formula
to mothers that have no refrigeration?

Nestle's "Mega Chocolate Trffle" wrapper says it all:

Innocent on the outside,
Wicked on the inside... Nestlé

One and a half million babies die every year because
they are not breastfed. Millions more become ill.
What makes a woman believe she cannot breastfeed
her baby, is the constant undermining
of her confidence, by advertising.
                                                                          UNICEF

Compleat Mother Magazine
        PO Box 209
        Minot, North Dakota 58702-0209
        email: Jody@Minot.com
        phone: 701 852-2822

TESTIMONY OF MICHAEL BELKIN BEFORE THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON IMMUNIZATION PRACTICES -- CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION --
February 17, 1999 -- Atlanta Georgia
---> HERE

Read: Don't drink your milk!
Is cow's milk good for you?

6/14/99

This news item l0 June l999 on a local (Vancouver, B.C. Canada) radio station:

Woman Sues St. Paul's

VANCOUVER (CKNW/98) -- A Vancouver woman is suing St. Paul's Hospital and several doctors because she was diagnosed as carrying the Aids virus, when in fact she wasn't. In a BC Supreme Court writ, Lisa Lebed claims when she was admitted to the hospital in late 1995 to give birth to a daughter, a blood sample was taken without her consent. It revealed she was HIV positive, so she gave up the baby girl for adoption and decided to have a tubal ligation. A year and-a-half later, while undergoing aids treatment, she found out she was not HIV positive. The explanation she was given was a lab error. She says because of the negligence of the hospital, she's now
sterile and has lost a daughter.

Chinese Protest

Eighteen mothers breast-fed their babies in public at the Peninsula Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui on May18th, to protest the hotel's baby-unfriendly attitude.

Their demonstration followed a letter to the South China Morning Post in which one of the mothers said hotel staff forced her to use a bathroom to feed her baby. She was caucasian, and a member of the Hong Kong La Leche
League. She was joined by members of a new Cantonese mothers' support group. A similar incident happend in Singapore, recently.

Ros Escott

U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Government Reform
Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy,
& Human Resources
John L. Mica, Chairman

News Advisory
For immediate release
Contact: Sharon L. Pinkerton
(202) 225-2577
May 11, 1999

Hepatitis B Vaccine: Helping or Hurting Public Health?

The purpose of this hearing is to examine both individual cases and more comprehensive evidence that indicates that many people, especially babies, are experiencing severe reactions to the Hepatitis B vaccine. Based on Federal guidelines issued by the Center for Disease Control
in 1991, 35 states have mandated Hepatitis B vaccines as a condition of attending school. In the US, the Hepatitis B disease mainly infects intravenous drug users, prostitutes and promiscuous heterosexuals and homosexuals.
The hearing will focus on:

*What studies are being done on the data from the
FDA's Vaccine Adverse Event Report?

*What are the risks and benefits for administering
this vaccine to infants?

*What process does the Center for Disease Control
employ to make a vaccine recommendation?

*What disclosure is required before the vaccine is
administered? Is it adequate?

WHAT: Hearing on Hepatitis B Vaccine
WHERE: 2247 Rayburn House Office Building
WHEN: Tuesday, May 18, 1999 at 10:00 am
WITNESS LIST: To Be Announced
Panel I, Victims
Panel II, Center for Disease Control, Food & Drug
Admin.
Panel III, Experts

Sandra Botting Dies

Dear Friends,

I am writing to you with some sad news that you may have already heard. Sandra Botting, beloved midwife, founder of CAPSAC, past President of the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA), who spear headed the midwifery movement in Alberta for over 25 years passed away on Saturday night. She had been diagnosed with cancer in February and recently caught a very bad
cold which turned into pneumonia. Unfortunately, her immune system could no longer battle this tough disease. She leaves behind husband Ron, children Susie, Neil, Leda and Jeremy and grandson Lucas (I'm sorry I don't remember her son-in-law's name).

A celebration of her life will be held at 3:00 p.m. Thursday at Calgary Crematorium, in the NE corner of the Queen's Park Cemetary 3219 4th St NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.    You are welcome to come. Please tell anyone you think may have been missed by the impromptu telephone tree and e:mail that went out on Mother's Day.   Feel free to bring something for a potluck of simple food for the reception which will be at the Scandinavian Hall 739 - 20th Avenue N.W., after the service.

If you never had the chance to meet or get to know Sandra well, she was a great woman of impeccable character who taught many of us about birth, about life, about friendship, about love, about giving, about encouragement and
humour and grace. My heart is heavy from the great personal loss and even sadder for the loss of such a stellar soul in the natural childbirth movement.

Please pass this message on to anyone you know who may be interested in this sad news.

If you would like to send a message to the family, their address is:

                The Botting Family
                507 Tavender Road N.W.
                Calgary, Alberta, Canada
                T2K 3M3
                E:mail Ron Botting <coherent@agt.net>

How blessed we were and how much better our world was by God's great gift of Sandra Botting. Instead of catching babies, I'm sure she is up in heaven picking the perfect baby for each family and sending them down to be caught in loving hands such as hers.

Love,
LAURA GOULET
President, Birth Unlimited
(formerly known as CAPSAC)

Infant Worries Could Be Carried for Years
Where Does Baby Stress Go?

It's not proof, but researcher Michael Commons points out that children in non-Western societies, ones that generally provide more familial support to children, kids seem to be less stressed.

Psychiatrists said today there may be a physical basis linking stressed-out babies to personality disorders in adulthood.

Babies who are made to sleep alone or are not picked up and comforted enough may grow up susceptible to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and personality problems, said Dr. Michael Commons of the Harvard Medical School, and colleagues.

The idea that babies need physical contact is not new-that is why they are no longer swaddled in tight blankets and left to cry for hours. But researchers speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science said they were starting to find evidence of
physical changes in the brain caused by stress in infancy.

"Parents in most cultures have infants sleep with them," Commons told a news conference. "As an infant, sleeping by yourself is very stressful. We can see this because infants cry."

Scientists have also found levels of the stress hormone cortisol to be much higher in crying babies. Commons suggested that constant stimulation by cortisol in infancy caused physical changes in the brain.

These Changes Don't Go Away
"It makes you more prone to the effects of stress, more prone to illness including mental illness and makes it harder to recover from illness," Commons said. "These are real changes and they don't go away."

cm_logowht.gif (6115 bytes)

Inside Mother

Home
Subscribe!
What's New?
Mother's Tea
Guest Article
Homebirth
Editorial
Best Articles
Breastfeeding
Dear Mother Dear
Reader Letters
Eternally Pregnant
Circumcision

Read past issues
of our newsletter

Site Features

Book Reviews
Mother Books
Cartoons!
Poems
Links
Birth Stories
Site Map
Advertising

Contact Us

Birth, Joy, & Raspberry Leaves
-a new video compiled by Catherine and Amanda Young
of The Compleat Mother

Go HERE for more information on the waterbirth video!

Click here to read: The Farmer and the Obstetrician

Click here for the Home Sweet Homebirth (Video)

SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

Subscriptions are $12 a year,
$20 for two years

Lifetime Subscription: $200

Bulk Subscriptions
(5 magazines each issue) $22 a year or
$35 for 2 years

To order, please click to our
Subscription Page

Greg Cryns
The Compleat Mother Magazine
5703 Hillcrest
Richmond, Illinois 60071
Phone: (815) 678-7531