Breasts (32 page)

Jane Austin’s story:
Tomalin,
Jane Austen,
pp. 7-9.

Some sources claim this is where the term
farmed out:
Baumslag and Michels,
Milk, Money, and Madness,
p. 46.

“the bread and butter”:
For this quote by John Keating and a good overview of the early days of pediatrics, see Rima
D.
Apple,
Mothers and Medicine: A Social History of Infant Feeding, 1890-1950
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987), p. 55ff.

“good Swiss milk and bread”:
As quoted in Apple,
Mothers and Medicine,
p. 9.

rise of germ theory:
For a good discussion of this and its influence in separating humans from nature, see Linda Nash’s
Inescapable
Ecologies: A History of Environment, Disease and Knowledge
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006).

mother was sent home with a pat on the back:
“Infant Food, Nestle’s Lactogen,” National Museum of American History, at
http://ameri canhistory.si.edu/collections/object.cfm?key=35&objkey=110
(accessed October 12, 2011).

“It just didn’t seem fair”:
Marian Thompson, quoted in Margot Edwards and Mary Waldorf,
Reclaiming Birth: History and Heroines of American Childbirth Reform
(Trumansburg, N.Y.: Crossing Press, 1984), p. 88.

“You didn’t mention ‘breast’ in print”:
Edwina Froehlich, quoted in Emily Bazelon, “Founding Mothers: Edwina Froehlich, b. 1915,”
New York Times,
December 23, 2008.

In Ghana, only 4 percent of women:
Laurie Nommsen-Rivers, research assistant professor, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, author interview, October 2010. For Sacramento rates, see Nommsen-Rivers, “Delayed Onset of Lactogenesis among First-Time Mothers Is Related to Maternal Obesity and Factors Associated with Ineffective Breastfeeding,”
Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
vol. 92, no. 3 (2010), pp. 574-584.

the activists asserting we’re in the midst of “a biocultural crisis”:
Dettwyler, “Beauty and the Breast,” p. ix.

“And in any case, if a breast-feeding mother”:
Hanna Rosin, “The Case against Breast-Feeding,”
Atlantic,
April 2009, accessed online at
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/04/the-case-against-breast-feeding/7311/
.

formula confers the same average loss in points:
Herbert L. Needleman et al., “Deficits in Psychological and Classroom Performance of Children with Elevated Dentine Lead Levels,”
New England Journal of Medicine,
vol. 300, no. 3 (1970), pp. 679-695.

Two major reviews of the literature:
Christopher G. Owen et al., “Effect of Infant Feeding on the Risk of Obesity across the Life Course: A Quantitative Review of Published Evidence,”
Pediatrics,
vol. 115, no. 5 (2005), pp. 1367-1377; and S. Arenz, “Breast-Feeding and Childhood Obesity—A Systematic Review,”
International Journal of Obesity,
vol. 28 (2004), pp. 1247-1256.

“O, thou with the beautiful face”:
Susruta Samhita, quoted in Valerie Fildes,
Breast, Bottles and Babies: A History of Infant Feeding
(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1986), p. 14.

equivalent of one thousand light trucks:
Daniel W. Sellen, “Evolution of Infant and Young Child Feeding: Implications for Contemporary Public Health,”
Annual Review of Nutrition,
vol. 27 (2007), pp. 123-148. Also, see A. M. Prentice and Ann Prentice, “Energy Costs of Lactation,”
Annual Review of Nutrition,
vol. 8 (1988), pp. 63-79.

“Breastfeeding is a form of matrotropy”:
Sandra Steingraber,
Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood
(Cambridge, Mass.: Perseus, 2001), p. 214. (Note, the more conventional spelling for this is
matrotrophy.)

In the old days, people used to measure milk output:
In fact, some doctors told women the only way to be absolutely certain their babies were getting enough to eat was to weigh them before and after
every feed,
including the two-in-the-morning one. It was another highly effective incentive to switch to formula.

In a paper describing the work:
Jacqueline C. Kent et al., “Breast Volume and Milk Production during Extended Lactation in Women,”
Experimental Physiology,
vol. 84 (1999), pp. 435-447.

In addition to recruiting the good bugs, these sugars prevent the bad bugs:
A quick word about the use here of “good” and “bad” bacteria. As scientists learn more about the role of microflora in our bodies, these terms appear somewhat reductive because what the scientists really mean is the overall healthful balance of bugs. I continue to use these terms, though, because that is the way people described them to me and it still seems apt enough when talking about the role of milk sugars and microbes.

a dreadful disease called NEC:
Information on NEC and premature babies from Lars Bode, assistant professor of pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, author interview, October 2010.

“We’ll take little tiny droplets of milk”:
Video by CBS/ Smartplanet. com, August 26, 2010, can be accessed at
http://www.smartplanet.com/video/is-the-cure-for-cancer-inside-milk/460136
.

There are ten times more microbacteria in our guts:
Roderick I. Mackie et al., “Developmental Microbial Ecology of the Neonatal Gastrointestinal Tract,”
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
vol. 69, no. 5 (1999), pp. 1035S-1045S.

Nearly a billion people don’t live near clean drinking water:
World Health Organization, “Global Health Observatory: Use of Improved Drinking Water Sources,” available at
http://www.who.int/gho/mdg/environmental_sustainability/water_text/en/index.html
(accessed October 2011).

One Japanese company:
For information on this and other products being developed with lactoferrin and marketed, and the economic analysis, see Vadim V. Sumbayev et al. (eds.),
Proceedings of the World Medical Conference: Malta, September 15-17, 2010
(Stevens Point, Wisc.: WSEAS Press, 2010), available at
http://www.wseas.us/e-library/conferences/2010/Malta/MEDICAL/MEDICAL-00.pdf
.

HAMLET kills forty different types of cancer cells in a dish:
Catharina Svanborg et al., “Hamlet Kills Tumor Cells by an Apoptosis-like Mechanism—Cellular, Molecular and Therapeutic Aspects,”
Advances in Cancer Research,
vol. 88 (2003), pp. 1-29.

several studies found:
For example, see X. O. Shu et al., “Breastfeeding and Risk of Childhood Acute Leukemia,”
Journal of the National Cancer Institute,
vol. 91, no. 20 (1999), pp. 1765-1772; for a more recent (and somewhat less enthusiastic) review of this literature, see Jeanne-Marie Guise et al., “Review of Case-Control Studies Related to Breastfeeding and Risk of Childhood Leukemia,”
Pediatrics,
vol. 116, no. 5 (2005), pp. e724 -e731.

donor milk is used mostly in neonatal intensive care units:
For

an interesting discussion of markets for breast milk, see Linda C.
Fentiman, “Marketing Mothers’ Milk: The Commodification of Breastfeeding and the New Markets in Human Milk and Infant Formula,”
Nevada Law Journal
(2009), available at Pace Law Faculty Publications, Paper 566:
http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/lawfaculty/566
.

mothers of sons produced fatter, more-energy-dense milk:
Katherine Hinde, “Richer Milk for Sons but More Milk for Daughters: Sex-Biased Investment during Lactation Varies with Maternal Life History in Rhesus Macaques,”
American Journal of Human Biology,
vol. 21, no. 4 (2009), pp. 512-519. Also, Katherine Hinde, author interview, December 2010.

Babies have evolved their own tricks:
David Haig, “Genetic Conflicts in Human Pregnancy,”
Quarterly Review of Biology,
vol. 68, no. 4 (December 1993), pp. 495-532; Sarah Blaffer Hrdy,
Mother Nature: Maternal Instincts and How They Shape the Human Species
(New York: Ballantine Books, 1999), pp. 430-441.

When the baby is older than one year:
Dror Mandel et al., “Fat and Energy Contents of Expressed Human Breast Milk in Prolonged Lactation,”
Pediatrics,
vol. 116, no. 3 (2005), pp. e432-e435.

After the terrorist attacks of 9/11:
Sandra Steingraber,
Raising Elijah
(Philadelphia: Da Capo Press, 2011), p. 19.

A mother loses up to 6 percent of her calcium:
J. M. Lopez, “Bone Turnover and Density in Healthy Women during Breastfeeding and after Weaning,”
Osteoporosis International,
vol. 6, no. 2 (1996), pp. 153-159.

“I was storing some of my milk”:
Eleanor “Bimla” Schwarz, assistant professor of medicine, epidemiology, obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences, University of Pittsburgh, author interview, October 2010.

humans are the only primates:
Daniel W. Sellen, “Evolution of Infant and Young Child Feeding: Implications for Contemporary Public Health,”
Annual Review of Nutrition,
vol. 27 (2007), pp. 123-148.

“a pattern known to be optimal”:
Daniel W. Sellen, Canada Research Chair in Human Ecology and Public Health Nutrition, University of Toronto, author interview, October 2010.

a recent paper of his:
Sellen, “Evolution and Infant Young Child Feeding.”

the very stuff itself is oddly compromised:
For an interesting discussion of how the profile of milk fats has changed due to the omega-6-dominant Western diet, see Erin E. Mosley, Anne L. Wright, Michelle K. McGuire, and Mark A. McGuire,
“Trans
Fatty Acids in Milk Produced by Women in the United States,”
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
vol. 82, no. 6 (2005), pp. 1292-1297.

“To recognize milk which is bad”:
Ebers Papyrus, quoted in Valerie Fildes,
Breasts, Bottles and Babies: A History of Infant Feeding
(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1986), p. 5.

“Today, polyurethanes can be found in virtually everything”:
“History,” Centers for the Polyurethanes Industry, Polyeurethane. org, available at
http://www.polyurethane.org/s_api/sec.asp?cid=853&did=3487
(accessed October 2011).

A typical home filled with polyurethane products”:
Bob Luedeka, executive director, Polyurethane Foam Association, author interview, August 2011.

It’s questionable whether or not these substances:
Y. Babrauskas et al., “Flame Retardants in Furniture Foam: Benefits and Risks,”
Fire Safety Science Proceedings, 10th International Symposium, International Association for Fire Safety Science
(2011, pending publication).

Most deaths in fires are caused:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Fire Deaths and Injuries: Fact Sheet,” October 1, 2010,
available at
www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/Fire-Prevention/fires-factsheet.html
.

They accumulate more toxins than other organs:
France P. Labreche, “Exposure to Organic Solvents and Breast Cancer in Women: A Hypothesis,”
American Journal of Industrial Medicine,
vol. 32 (1997), pp. 1-14.

Morton Biskind examined a pregnant woman:
Morton Biskind et al., “DDT Poisoning: A New Syndrome with Neuropsychiatric Manifestations,”
American Journal of Psychotherapy,
vol. 3, no. 2 (1949), pp. 261-270; Morton S. Biskind, “Statement on Clinical Intoxication from DDT and Other New Insecticides,” presented before the Select Committee to Investigate the Use of Chemicals in Food Products, United States House of Representatives, December 12, 1950, Westport, Conn., published in the
Journal of Insurance Medicine,
vol. 6, no. 2 (March-May 1951), pp. 5-12.

finding DDT in the milk:
For a great overview of the problem, see Steingraber,
Having Faith,
p. 252. The 1951 study by E. P. Laug is recounted in “DDT and Its Derivatives,” published by the United Nations Environmental Programme and the World Health Organization in 1979, available at
http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc009.htm
.

Researchers in the Great Lakes region:
one of the most famous studies is Joseph L. Jacobson and Sandra W. Jacobson, “Intellectual Impairment in Children Exposed to Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Utero,”
New England Journal of Medicine,
vol. 335 (1996), pp. 783-789.

animal poisoning in Michigan in
1974:Åke Bergman, “The Abysmal Failure of Preventing Human and Environmental Exposure to Persistent Brominated Flame Retardants: A Brief Historical Review of BRFs,” in Mehran Alaee et al. (eds.),
Commemorating 25 Years of Dioxin Symposia
(Toronto: Twenty-fifth Dioxin Committee, 2005), pp. 32-40. Also see Joyce Egginton,
The Poisoning of Michigan
(East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1980).

In the years that followed:
For the long-term effects in the people exposed in the Michigan case, see Heidi Michels Blanck et al., “Age at Menarche and Tanner Stage in Girls Exposed in Utero and Postnatally to Polybrominated Biphenyl,”
Epidemiology,
vol. 11, no. 6 (2000), pp. 641-671. Also, Michele Marcus, Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, author interview, November 2010.

at 36 parts per billion:
Arnold Schecter, professor of environmental and occupational health sciences, University of Texas School of Public Health, author interview, September 2004.

In humans as well as rodents:
For example, see Ami R. Zota, “Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs), Hydroxylated PBDEs (OH-PBDEs), and Measures of Thyroid Function in Second Trimester Pregnant Women in California,”
Environmental Science and Technology,
published online, August 10, 2011.

In 2010, researchers in New York found:
Julie Herbstman, “Prenatal Exposure to PBDEs and Neurodevelopment,”
Environmental Health Perspectives,
vol. 118, no. 5 (May 2010), pp. 712-719.